Performance: GP United's Isabelle Nguyen
February 27, 2017
Isabelle Nguyen
Grosse Pointe North senior – Gymnastics
After taking fifth, second and second, respectively, in the MHSAA Finals Division 1 competition her first three years of competition, Grosse Pointe United’s Nguyen faced high expectations heading into her final season of high school gymnastics – and has met them all. Nguyen scored an all-around 37.975 to win Division 1 at the Great Lakes League Championships on Feb. 18 and earn the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week” for Feb. 13-19, and she’s won all of her invitationals this season, including the prestigious Canton event that yearly draws the top competition from all over the state.
Nguyen won on all four apparatuses at the league meet, and also posted a 37.150 all-around Wednesday against Canton. She holds every record for Grosse Pointe United, and next will lead her team into the Regional on Saturday at Walled Lake Central. Like many gymnasts, Nguyen also dives – she qualified for the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals in the fall and just missed making the final round of competition. She also will return for her third season of lacrosse this spring after sitting out last season with an injury.
Injuries also will keep Nguyen from pursuing college gymnastics, but she’s got other goals set. She will attend Wayne State University and study computer technology after cultivating an interest in coding during a technology class she took as a junior at North. She carries a 3.5 grade-point average and also is interested in coaching when her competing days are done – which likely will be in two weeks, and potentially after she celebrates a Division 1 all-around title.
Coach Kristin Remillet said: “Watching her success over the past four years has been such a fun experience for me as a coach. It’s great to see a deserving, hardworking young lady like Izzy get the recognition she deserves each and every meet. As an individual competitor, she is peaking this season, her senior year, and has won the all-around title in every single invitational she has competed in this season. … She’s a great all-around gymnast who is a standout competitor in every event. That’s really Izzy’s strength; she is so well-rounded across all four apparatuses, it makes her tough to beat in the all-around competition. … Every time Izzy competes for our team in a large-scale meet, I’m impressed with her focus and her ability to shine in times of pressure. Another of Izzy’s strengths that I’m very impressed with is her ability to lead others in our gym. She’s not just a phenomenal athlete, she is also a great teammate and friend. Whether you have been on the team with her for two years, or two weeks, she makes so many teammates feel comfortable, welcomed, and loves to help them improve as well.”
Performance Point: “Most of my (league) performance, I was pretty happy with; on beam, I haven’t been landing my skills lately, so I was pretty scared about that, but on bar I was pretty satisfied (because) I almost had a fall but I was able to save it,” Nguyen said. “Overall, I was really proud of myself. … I still want (to win MHSAA Finals). It still makes me want to work hard seeing how close other girls were to me. I’m still pushing myself in practice, getting ready for Regionals and states. I’ve just been trying to work on hitting everything.”
Taking flight: “My favorite (apparatus) is uneven bars. I feel like I’m just more free. I feel like I’m flying. When I first started learning it, just started giants, I started liking it all. It’s not something I’m scared of; on beam I’m more scared of doing stuff than on bars.”
Sport for every season: “It’s mostly keeping me in shape. Diving is the flipping; I just like flipping a lot. In lacrosse, I like to meet new people too who like other sports, and (I like) the running. I’m kinda a fan of running.”
More than tough enough: “Last year, the week of states, I hurt my knee. I have extra bones in my feet, and I just hurt my ankle. … I’d say (gymnasts) are pretty tough. A lot of people don’t think we’re strong. It’s because they think we’re small; they think we’re weak. It’s really not (true). I love gymnastics. I just wanted to keep doing it. I knew I had to take breaks and everything, but it’s something I really like.”
Call me Coach (next year): “Right now I coach little kids, just for fun, but my (high school) coach is planning to have me coach next year if I can. I like seeing new girls like the sport that I like, and it makes me happy helping everyone so they can get better.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2016-17 school year, Second Half and the Michigan National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2016-17 honorees:
Feb. 16: Dakota Hurbis, Saline swimming & diving – Read
Feb. 2: Foster Loyer, Clarkston basketball – Read
Jan. 26: Nick Jenkins, Detroit Catholic Central wrestling – Read
Jan. 19: Eileene Naniseni, Mancelona basketball – Read
Jan. 12: Rory Anderson, Calumet hockey – Read
Dec. 15: Demetri Martin, Big Rapids basketball – Read
Dec. 1: Rodney Hall, Detroit Cass Tech football – Read
Nov. 24: Ally Cummings, Novi volleyball – Read
Nov. 17: Chloe Idoni, Fenton volleyball – Read
Nov. 10: Adelyn Ackley, Hart cross country – Read
Nov. 3: Casey Kirkbride, Mattawan soccer – Read
Oct. 27: Colton Yesney, Negaunee cross country – Read
Oct. 20: Varun Shanker, Midland Dow tennis – Read
Oct. 13: Anne Forsyth, Ann Arbor Pioneer cross country – Read
Oct. 6: Shuaib Aljabaly, Coldwater cross country – Read
Sept. 29: Taylor Seaman, Brighton swimming & diving – Read
Sept. 22: Maggie Farrell, Battle Creek Lakeview cross country – Read
Sept. 15: Franki Strefling, Buchanan volleyball – Read
Sept. 8: Noah Jacobs, Corunna cross country – Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Grosse Pointe United's Isabelle Nguyen competes on uneven parallel bars this season. (Middle) Nguyen performs on balance beam at last season's MHSAA Finals. (Photos courtesy of Grosse Pointe United gymnastics.)
Troy's Shabet Finishes with a First
March 9, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
CANTON – Christina Shabet knew it wasn't the best thing to do during a competition. But she couldn't keep back the tears Saturday after falling off the beam for the second time.
She’d also just watched another competitor put up a great score on the apparatus, and those two together seemed to spell the end of Shabet’s pursuit of the MHSAA Division 1 championship this winter.
“I’d worked so hard, and I fell on the easiest skill I have in my routine,” Shabet said. “I was kinda devastated, and I thought, ‘Oh no, I’m not going to place at all.’
“I thought it was all over. But I went out on floor and just gave it everything.”
The Troy junior realized soon after that the competitor she'd watched do well on beam was competing in Division 2 instead. Shabet knocked out her floor routine – to go with top-seven places on bars and vault – and finished with 37.700 points to claim the all-around championship by only two tenths of a point over Coldwater senior Kylie Dudek.
Shabet didn't finish first on any apparatus. But her 9.75 on floor certainly made a huge difference, as did her 9.4 to tie for seventh on vault and 9.35 to finish fifth on bars.
Her all-around score was nearly a point higher than when she finished seventh in 2012.
“You know how you’re supposed to write down goals? I wrote it down along with my do good on the ACT thing too,” said Shabet, who then confirmed the ACT also worked out well. “I've been working so hard. It’s really nice that it pays off.”
The beam doomed a number of Division 1 contenders Saturday, although Dudek was able to come back from two falls and a score of 8.6 to finish with an all-around 37.500.
She won bars with a 9.8, was third on floor with a 9.7 and tied for seventh on vault with a 9.4 – and moved up three spots overall after finishing fifth in 2012.
“I struggled on beam … and I didn’t do the vault I normally do. But overall, I’m pretty happy,” Dudek said.
“Just having all the school records I’ve broken this year, and placing at state in the top three. That was my goal, and I did it.”
The top six placers in Division 1 all finished within 0.525 of the lead. Farmington freshman Carina Wright came in third with a 37.375 all-around score.
Four gymnasts each earned one apparatus championship in Division 1. Pinckney senior Ashley Hextall moved from up Division 2 last season to win vault with a 9.650. Canton sophomore Jocelyn Moraw had to amaze those who had also watched her during Friday’s Team Final, winning the beam with a 9.55 despite a slight limp and while competing through hamstring and back injuries. Grand Ledge’s Rachel Hogan, only a freshman, won floor with a 9.8 – which tied the Division 1 meet record for the event.
Hogan’s teammate, junior Presley Allison, claimed the Division 2 all-around championship after placing third the last two seasons. She scored a 37.875 to edge another teammate, senior Lauren Clark, by three tenths of a point.
Allison took first on both floor (9.7) and beam (9.675) and tied with Canton junior Erica Lucas (9.525) for first on vault in posting the second-highest Division 2 score in Finals history (Clark’s 37.575 was the third-highest.). Allison is the third-straight Comets Division 2 champ, and like predecessors Christine Wilson and Sara Peltier, she intends to move up to Division 1 for her senior season..
“Being Division 2 champion was my ultimate goal. I just tried to keep calm and not let my nerves get to me,” Allison said.
“I really wanted to win Division 2 before I jumped up to Division 1. It gives me more confidence to go into Division 1.”
Grosse Pointe United senior Emma Abessinio – third in the all-around – won the Division 2 bars with a 9.075.
Allison’s scores on beam and floor both set Division 2 Finals records.
PHOTOS: (Top) Troy junior Christina Shabet competes on the beam during Saturday's MHSAA Individual Finals at Plymouth High School. She won the Division 1 title. (Middle) Coldwater senior Kylie Dudek performs her floor routine en route to a second-place all-around finish in Division 1. (Bottom) Grand Ledge junior Presley Allison won the Division 2 individual title after finishing third each of the last two seasons. (Photos by Gregory Long. Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)