Trojans win South for the first time
Beam routines make difference
NORTHBORO >> Winning state championships is nothing new for the BridgewaterRaynham/West Bridgewater girls’ gymnastics team. Taking home a gold trophy from the South sectionals? Well, that’s something that the program hadn’t accomplished before … until Saturday.
After getting off to a slow start on the uneven bars, the Trojans found their groove in the balance beam and floor exercise as they recorded nines across the board, giving them enough wiggle room to get around some mistakes in the vault. All told, it resulted in a team score of 142.95 points, good enough to best Groton-Dunstable, Barnstable and Medway.
“I was really happy that we started on the bars because we knew how low the scoring was,” B-R/WB coach Steven Cudworth said. “I was just glad to get it out of the way and move on to the events where we could rack up the points.”
Needing a big move to get itself in the conversation for the team title, the Trojans owned the balance beam in the second rotation and used it to make a huge jump. Four successive scores of 9.200 or better from Lily Moreira, Sage Balsamo, Katie Russo and Cecelia Meoli jumped them into second place, ahead of Barnstable.
“I think that had to be the best set of beam routines that we’ve had in years, even when we’ve won the state title,” Cudworth said. “Everyone stepped up and did a fantastic job.”
Groton-Dunstable came out of the blocks on fire in the opening rotation as they posted a 36.275 to take the lead ahead of Medway and Barnstable. But as many gymnasts found out on Saturday, the uneven bars proved to be a hefty challenge.
G-D struggled on the bars in the second rotation, opening the door for a jumble of the standings after they fell to 10th. Medway walked through that open door, led by Greta Wolfgang’s 9.475 effort on the vault, to take the team lead at the halfway point.
Unfortunately, Medway fell victim to the fickle apparatus that was the uneven bars on this snowy Saturday as their hopes of taking the title effectively ended when they struggled through the third rotation and dropped outside the top eight.
The Trojans, meanwhile, found the floor exercise very much to their liking. Sage Balsamo kicked off the apparatus with an 8.600. After an 8.875 from Amanda Lally, the ball really got rolling.
Mia Balsamo, Moreira, Meoli and Russo all scored between 9.050 and 9.325 to give their team a nearly two-point lead heading to the final apparatus.
It proved to be anything but smooth for the leaders
in the vault as small mistakes brought down their first five scores before Russo came through with a 9.300 on the final vault of the competition to finally insure first place.
The battle for the final three spots in the state finals next week proved to be a tight battle right to the
end. Medway was outside the top eight heading to its final event but a knockout performance on the beam helped them jump into the final team qualifying position.
Barnstable put up a 31.375 score on the bars, one of the best performances of the competition, and
nearly were able to jump G-D for second place. But in the final performance of the meet, Nina Scaramucci scored a 9.400 on the floor exercise to clinch second for her squad.
“We made it a little closer than we had to at the end but I’m so proud of the girls,” Cudworth said.