Swift recovery leads B-R/WB to repeat

SHREWSBURY — Defending state champions just don’t struggle on their first rotation at a big gymnastics meet.

Yet, here BridgewaterRaynham/West Bridgewater was yesterday. After a boatload of bobbles on their first apparatus of the state gymnastics championships — the uneven bars — the co-op was not in a good place to defend the title.

So coach Stephen Cudworth took his team aside and put things in perspective.

“I pulled them aside af- ter the first event and said, ‘You girls are state champions, and you need to act like state champions,” Cudworth said.

The message got through. “Basically, he told us to shake it off,” Olivia Keyes said. “There are four events in gymnastics, and you can’t let one bring you down.”

B-R/WB shook the uneven bars failure off like Taylor Swift, propelling it to a second consecutive state title with a 144.475144.275 victory over last year’s runner up, Mansfield.

Upstart Masconomet/ Lynnfield was right behind

in third place with a 143.775.

The final two events — floor exercise and vault — sealed the repeat for B-R/ WB. Led by Keyes’ huge opening double pike, the co-op’s rotation earned a day’s-best 36.975. Anchor Kara Devereaux, who

knew her pike Tsukahara vault needed to be perfect, closed out the meet with a 9.275, the exact number her team needed to lock up another title.

“It was one of those things where I said, ‘I got this. Vault’s my thing. It’s the best I can do,’ ” Devereaux said.

Mansfield placed two gymnasts, Lily Goulding and Erin Hurley, in the top five of the all-around, but it just wasn’t enough.

“Honestly, I think it was our toughest meet of the year,” Mansfield coach Nikki Luongo said. “We took a lot of falls on beam and just had some uncharacteristic stuff all day.”

Masconomet freshmen Gracy Mowers captured the all-around title with a 38.0 that matched her skyhigh skills.

Thanks to outstanding work on the balance beam, Reading landed in fourth with a 142.775.