Standing tall and proud, the girls gymnastics team looks out into the crowd at the 2024 IHSA Girls Gymnastics state meet. Cheers arise from their parents and coaches, as the Trostangs are handed the second place trophy for their team performance at the state meet. Receiving the second place trophy had marked another step in the continued growth of the Girls Gymnastics team.
With the girls gymnastics team ending as the state runners-up last season and the state champions in the 2022-2023 season; they look to continue their growth as a program for the upcoming 2024-2025 IHSA Girls Gymnastics season.
Unlike most programs at DGS, the girls gymnastics team has something unique about them. They are not the Mustangs of DGS, but instead are the Trostangs of Downers Grove. This is because the team is a co-op with crosstown rivals DGN, a merger that was implemented at the start of the 2019-2020 season.
The Trostangs look to bring back nine of their ten varsity members from last year’s state run, with Senior Genevieve Herion and Sophomore Edith “Edie” Condon looking to lead the team back to the state championship meet.
Herion enters her third and final season with the Trostangs after two years of podium placements where she placed 3rd in the all-around with a score of 37.4 and 3rd in the uneven bars event with a score of 9.325 at the 2022-2023 state meet. Herion kept up the top placements as she placed 5th in the all-around with a score of 37.15 and was the state champion for the balance beam event with a score of 9.525 in last year’s state final meet.
Condon begins her second year as a Trostang after becoming a key gymnast during last year’s state-run. Condon placed 2nd in the balance beam event with a score of 9.475, which was .05 hundredths short of the state champion and fellow Trostang, Herion. Like Herion, Condon will look to have another successful year, and be one of the key leaders in a competitive Trostang squad.
Condon has been identified as a standout gymnast and leader by head coach Kristyn Campos.
“Sophomore Edith Condon has been a leader since her first year on the team. Edie is a hard worker who holds her teammates accountable for their work in the gym,” Campos said.
Campos will start her 18th season as head coach of the girls gymnastics team and looks to keep the team’s standard of excellence prevalent in Downers Grove. The Campos era has seen much success for the girls gymnastics team as her teams have achieved eight straight regional titles since 2015, six WSG conference titles, five sectional titles and five state qualifications.
The success of the Trostangs has been attributed to the way they view their season and goals. Most teams who have good talent like the Trostangs look at the season with one big goal in mind. For the Trostangs, they don’t set big goals and expectations as they view the season as a fresh start and strive to build their own goals together as a team as the season progresses.
Herion identifies how the team looks at their season with a fresh slate every year and how they build in their own motivation to succeed at all meets.
“We have no expectations; we are starting fresh and we have been working hard all summer. We are not going to pressure ourselves and have a good season,” Herion said.
Herion also touched on how the team stays composed when they reach the big meets at the end of the season.
“We build off each other, we always give each other pep talks and we always huddle up before we do events. We build each other up,” Herion said.
The continued growth of the girls gymnastics team continues every season. The success from both of the last two state meets can also add some more records to the growth of the Trostangs. The team broke the school record for most team points in a meet, which was a score of 146.325 as the past school record was broken a year before during the 2022-2023 season.
With the team’s continued growth, the Trostangs have what they need to build toward another top finish at this year’s state meet. You can keep up with the team this season by following DGSAthletics on X or by attending one of their meets. The Trostangs will have their first meet on Dec. 7, where they will compete at the Glenbard West Hilltopper Invite as they embark on another promising season.
