Geralen Joni Stack-Eaton was born in Abington, Pennsylvania on October 25, 1989. She was the daughter of Jon and Susan. Her dad passed away in December of 2003. Lou, as she is commonly referred to as, has one brother and one sister. She began gymnastics at the age of four.
Until 2001, Lou competed for Ricochets. In 2000, she finished second all-around at the Level 9 Eastern Championships. She won floor. In 2001, she competed as a level ten at Regionals. In the fall, Lou switched to Parkettes. In 2002, she won the Maryland Classic. Lou then qualified to junior international elite. She finished second all-around at the Dragon Invitational. She competed at the National Elite Podium Meet. At the US Classic, she finished high enough to qualify for the US National Championships. Lou ended her season at Nationals.
Lou started her 2003 season with several open invitationals. She competed in Texas and the WOGA Classic. Lou finished second all-around at the Parkette Invitational and third all-around at the IGI Chicago Style. She was chosen to compete at the USA vs. Japan international meet. At the American Classic, she finished seventh all-around! This qualified her for Nationals. Lou competed at her second international meet, the USA vs. Belgium. She won a bronze in the all-around. Shortly before nationals, Lou competed at the US Classic. She finished fourth on beam. At Nationals, Lou placed in the top ten all-around! This qualified her for the US National Team. She retired shortly after the competition.
After trying out several other sports, Lou decided to return to gymnastics in 2004. She competed one event at the US Classic because of an ankle injury. In 2005, she returned to compete as a senior international elite. She won the Cancun Classic and Parkette Invitational. After several months off, she competed at the US Classic. Despite some falls, she placed eighth all-around! Lou was not able to compete at Nationals because of injuries. In 2006, Lou placed in the top twenty at Nationals despite an injury.
2007 was a great year for Lou. She made her first US National Team by placing sixth all-around at the Visa Championships in San Jose, California. Lou finished fourth on bars and seventh on beam. Her performance earned her an international assignment in Germany. She competed at the DTB Pokal World Cup. Lou came back from a disastrous bar routine to make beam finals. Unfortunately she balked on a leap early in her beam routine in finals. In November, she signed with the University of Alabama.
As a freshman, she was on the SEC All-Freshman Team. Geralen competed on vault, bars and beam throughout the season. She began competing floor and the all-around in the second half of the season. She won several event titles throughout the season. She won beam against Penn State, Denver and Kentucky. She won bars against Auburn. She won vault against Stanford and Denver.
Photos © Erica Machel, Lloyd Smith
