Season Wrap-up Leaves Lemurs Confident for Next Year

Four Lemurs sat eagerly awaiting for the awards ceremony to begin, marking the end of Stuyvesant’s boys’ gymnastics’ season. As top scorers in their events, the Lemurs were optimistic about placing high in the city. One by one, events were called out as each member of the team received his plaque and took his place on the podium, proud to have come so far.

The Lemurs ended this season with a final count of three wins to three losses, holding one of the lower standings in the city. Despite taking fourth place in the league at their division finals, they remain optimistic and confident for the coming years.

A main source of optimism is that during their season, two out of three of their losses were by fewer than .5 points. The first of these losses was to Long Island City High School by .2 points on January 18. With this in mind, the Lemurs were determined to compete cleanly and with solid routines to reduce errors, since anything from a missing toe-point to an extra step could make the difference between victory or failure.

But nearly a month later, the Lemurs matched up against LaGuardia High School with a similar result, losing by .3 points on February 9. Junior and co-captain Muhib Khan described the meet as “very close […] both [teams] had very close difficulty [levels] in routines… [We had] a few falls [specifically] on the Pommel Horse […] which was a large factor (.5 off for each [fall]) considering the very small difference we lost by.” One small difference could have completely changed the course of the Lemurs’ season.

The team’s final meet of the season, however, resulted in a team score high of 112.8 as they beat Bronx Science High School by over 5 points. Coming out of their match against LaGuardia, they had prepared a list of small errors that they hoped to avoid against Science; “Toe point[s]; dismount[s]; extra step[s],” coach Marvin Autry explained. So, they entered the meet confident that they could win, leading sophomore Ethan Chen to earn his highest score all season, a 7.0 in Floor Exercise. “Everyone hit their routines amazingly, and there were little to no mistakes,” junior and co-captain Andy Zhang said.

When the finals arrived, the Lemurs were not as prepared as they had hoped to be. Despite a similar skill level between Stuyvesant and LaGuardia after only losing by .3 points during the season, as the meet began, they quickly saw that they would be unable to overtake third-place LaGuardia. “One of their team members who is a club kid [and is] much stronger than the rest of the team competed against us [today] who didn't in the past, and we weren't expecting it. So our goal of defeating them became much more difficult,” Khan said. Though it wasn’t the outcome the team was hoping for, the Lemurs still finished strong by beating both Tottenville High School and Bronx Science.

Despite the team elimination, a select group of the elite members of the Lemurs advanced to individual event finals on March 3: senior John Lin competed on Pommel Horse, Rings, and Parallel Bars, junior Muhib Khan competed on Pommel Horse, Rings, Parallel Bars, Vault, and Floor Exercise, sophomore Jordan Kaisman competed on Pommel Horse, Rings, and High Bar, and junior Nehal Hasnain competed in Floor Exercise. Looking back on the season, it was clear that experienced athletes like Khan, Lin, and Kaisman were going to fair well at individual finals given their consistently high scores on their individual events, but the extent of their successes surpassed their own expectations.

The members representing the Lemurs competed well, placing in nearly all events. Lin placed second on Pommel Horse, eighth on Rings, and sixth on Parallel Bars. Khan placed fourth on Pommel Horse, sixth on Rings, eighth on Parallel Bars, eighth on Vault, seventh on Floor Exercise, and seventh All-Around. Khan also received a plaque for being an event leader on Pommel Horse as well as a PSAL Athlete of the Week certificate. Kaisman placed seventh on Pommel Horse, sixth on Rings, and sixth on Vault. Hasnain placed sixth on Floor Exercise. The individual skills of these members give hope for future successful seasons.

The end of their season, while not as successful as they’ve seen in the past, has left them with many top-scoring juniors and now experienced underclassmen, while many of their opponents’ top gymnasts are graduating. “Most of our score comes from underclassmen, aside from John, but John only competes on 3 events which can [easily] be made up by others on the team. So we aren't really losing very much,” Khan said optimistic about next year. “Next year, I would think, will be our year, providing everything is great […] we’re one of the favorites,” Autry said.