WA Gymnastics barely misses DCL title
February 12, 2017
On February 11, WA Gymnastics faced off with Newton-South, Acton – Boxborough, and Cambridge Ridge & Latin for the DCL championships. Missing the title by 2.6 points, WA placed behind NS with a total score of 138.150.
DCLs started off with the gymnasts lining up on the floor and they then soon spilt up into separate teams to stretch and prepare for their first event.
WA’s first event was the uneven bars. The team scored a total of 33.950 points, only 0.6 points behind NS. There was a lot of cheering as the team members dismounted the bars. The uneven bars were where WA placed the most. In 6th place was Senior Julia Vitto, freshman Mia Previte took 2nd, and Brown took 3rd place.
The second event was beam. A couple gymnasts fell off of the beam, however WA still came away with a total score of 33.550. At this point in the meet, WA was behind NS 2.15 points. On Beam, Jelina Farrell placed 2nd with first being another competitor from NS.
On the third rotation, WA was on the floor. The team came away with a score of 35.000, and although this was one of their higher scoring rounds, NS still had a lead of 3.5 points at the end of the third round. On floor, Senior Joscelyn Pagilia tied with NS for 5th place, and one place above her was Brown. The top three spots were dominated by NS and AB competitors respectively.
The final apparatus was vault. The last member of WA competition was Senior captain Kiana Brown. Brown broke her own and school record, which was originally 9.55, to 9.6. Even opponents cheered her on.This allowed to WA to close the lead slightly with a total score of 35.650 points on vault. On vault there was a three way tie between freshman Jessica Gould, Paglia, and an AB competitor. Brown came away with first for her 9.6 score on her vault that broke school records.
Awards were dealt out after the competitors had a friendly competition of who could do the longest handstand. The winner was promptly handed a pink rose, due to Valentine’s Day coming up on the 14th.
Coach Tom Bonacci was happy with how the meet turned out and how the team stepped up to address the competition.
“The girls stepped up; they probably had their best meet of the year so far so it was good to see them all stepping up. They really pulled together as a team and they really got it all together,” said Bonacci.
In the all-around awards, Brown took home 3rd after competing in all events.
Bonacci stated, “Beam is the toughest event and I think if we really concentrate on the mindset for balance beam it’s like no other event When you go to beam its all about your mindset and your mind preparation. The girls have the skills, its just the mindset of getting there and getting ready to stick beam.”
The captains were excited about the results of the meet and were happy with how the team did.
“Overall I think we did really good. We were really supportive, We tried really hard. We did really good,” said Brown.
Senior Captain Caroline Zacharchuk was excited on how this meet finished off .
Zacharchuk states, “We got our highest score this season with the team and we broke a record today so it was definitely really exciting. I think it was a good way to finish off.”
