The McLean gymnastics team completed their quest for back to back regional titles, winning their second in a row last Thurday at Washington-Lee High School.

Fresh off a narrow win at the conference meet a week earlier against South Lakes, Washington-Lee, Yorktown, Herndon, and Langley, McLean managed to defend their regional title on Thursday with key performances across all events.

Standouts include senior Samantha Simon, who claimed first place on both the floor and beam as well as a third in pole vault. Sara Vavonese and Jennie Korb also had positive showings, managing a third and fifth place in the floor event, respectively.

Going deep into their season, it took a genuine team effort to keep their hopes of another state title alive.

“It was really unifying. It feels great to win as a team and it really brings everyone together,” freshman Amelia Zug said.

Freshman like Zug are following in the footsteps of a decorated group of upperclassmen, featuring the likes of Simon and Carolyn Brown-Kaiser.

“We had to place either first or second at the district meet. We ended up winning in a really close meet, so we knew going into regionals that we were going to have to work that much harder to ensure our spot at states,” said Simon.

On Friday, Feb. 16^th , the team will travel to Heritage High School in Leesburg to defend their state championship.