"Denver seniors Taylor Sanford, center, and Annamari Maaranen, left, sing backstage with teammate Kaitlin Moorhead before being introduced prior to a dual meet against Arkansas in Hamilton Gymnasium at the Ritchie Center in Denver, Saturday, March 12, 2011. As a tradition, seniors dress up with props for the final home meet of their careers."
"Denver senior Amanda Johanson sings the National Anthem prior to her final home meet as a Pioneer in Hamilton Gymnasium at the Ritchie Center in Denver, Saturday, March 12, 2011."
"Denver senior Annamari Maaranen is congratulated by head coach Melissa Kutcher-Rinehart after she scored a 9.850 on the uneven bars during a dual meet against Arkansas in Hamilton Gymnasium at the Ritchie Center in Denver, Saturday, March 12, 2011."
"Denver's Taylor Stanford (right) celebrates her exhibition uneven bar routine with fellow senior Kristina Coccia during a dual meet against Arkansas in Hamilton Gymnasium at the Ritchie Center in Denver, Saturday, March 12, 2011."
"Denver senior Kristina Coccia is framed by teammates during her balance beam routine against Arkansas in Hamilton Gymnasium at the Ritchie Center in Denver, Saturday, March 12, 2011."
Saturday night marked the beginning of the end for senior gymnasts Amanda, Annamari, Kristina and Taylor.
I photographed the group for the first time along with now retired gymnast turned team manager Dani Kirchoff as freshman back in 2007 on top of a parking structure with their new team. I photographed them again as sophomores. Since then we've spent many Sunday mornings at Whole Foods recapping the weekend over pizza and iced tea or via iChat at the wee hours of the morning from opposite sides of the country.
I really enjoy what I do but photographing friends means even more so I was really happy to get an assignment to shoot the final home meet of their careers.
Unlike Magness arena where I shot a DU meet back in January, Hamilton gymnasium is a challenge (read: nearly impossible) to shoot in because of the bad light, yellow seats and busy backgrounds. Thankfully DU already has plenty of action for the year and asked me to focus on more feature and team related images.
As a tribute to the seniors, my friends I wanted to share a few of my favorites of them from the meet. I really loved the first image in color but keeping everything in black & white made for a more cohesive set of images.
Congrats on four fantastic years girls and good luck at regionals!
-JCE
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