AFC grad recovers from injuries to win titles at USTA, AAU events

Cristina Boyd had every reason to want to give up gymnastics.

After all, a little more than 3 years ago, it left her with two bum ankles, time in a wheelchair, and hobbling around on crutches.

She persevered, however, and bounded her way to the top as a member of the Gymnastics Divine team at a pair of national competitions this summer.

Boyd, 19, earned first-place finishes at the United States Tumbling Association national meet held June 12-16 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as well as at the AAU Junior Olympics held July 26-29 in Des Moines, Iowa.

At the USTA national meet, Boyd took first place in the floor exercise, and eighth place in the double mini trampoline.

“I was actually very surprised at how well I did,” Boyd said. “Those girls were really good.”

At the Junior Olympics, Boyd took top honors in the double mini trampoline.

“I did my passes, and they were better than at nationals,” Boyd said.

Boyd, a 2017 AFC High School graduate, has competed for Gymnastics Divine for the past 12 years. Three years ago, at a season-ending performance at the team’s former facility on First Street in Dixon, she was executing a move called a back punch front, which she described as a back flip, right into a front flip, then sticking the landing.

“I landed with both of my feet turned in,” Boyd said. “I remembered looking up at the ceiling, and then I kind of went blank for a while. One of the coaches, Nick, he came over and was like, ‘Just do your breathing,’ because they always teach us how to do our breathing to relax us.

“Then I looked down at my ankle and I was like, ‘Wow, that doesn’t look great.’”

In the left ankle, she had a dislocation of the subtalor joint, for which she had to have screws implanted to stabilize the injury. In the right ankle, she had several spider fractures that would eventually heal with proper rest.

Boyd was in a wheelchair for a month, on crutches for another month, then had 3 months of physical therapy before resuming normal activity. For Boyd, that meant getting back out on a gymnastics mat.

“I wanted to come back, but my parents weren’t sure about me coming back,” Boyd said. “My doctor was surprised that I wanted to come back.”

She did, however, and after not competing in 2016, she was back at it in 2017. Boyd was a national meet qualifier last summer.

Boyd, a sophomore at Sauk Valley Community College, is studying psychology and plans to be a child life specialist someday. She hopes to attend the University of Iowa next fall.

Boyd has also been teaching at Gymnastics Divine, under owner Deb DeLancey, for the past 4 years.

“I want to own my own gym one day, and be like Deb,” Boyd said.

While Boyd is a veteran at Gymnastics Divine, a pair of rookies, twins Kameron and Kale Grobe of Polo, also made a big splash at the Junior Olympics.

Kameron earned a first place in the tumbling portion of the competition, including a near-perfect score of 9.9 for one of his passes. It consisted of a roundoff and three flip-flips.

“I had my toes pointed and my legs together,” Kameron said. “The only thing I could have fixed was to be on the line a little bit more, and maybe have my legs a little bit tighter.”

Kale took first place in the mini trampoline. He scored a 9.4 and a 9.6 on his second passes.

“I have been having trouble with my legs being together, but I think I put them together on those passes,” Kale said. “That’s why I got a good score.”

All told, Gymnastics Divine had three first-place finishers (Boyd, Ashley Cadie and Kameron Grobe) at the USTA national meet. At the Junior Olympics, first-placers were Dana Merriman, Liam Nicklaus and Kameron Grobe in tumbling; Sophie Stender and Kale Grove in single mini trampoline; and Boyd in double mini trampoline.

“We’ve never had five first-place high score team awards, so that’s very exciting,” DeLancey said. “I think that says a lot about the depth of the program and the passion of the kids who are involved in it.”