Not its best, but Geneva beats Batavia
The Batavia girls gymnastics team didn’t expect to go into Mack Olson Gym on Wednesday evening and beat Geneva.
The Bulldogs thought they could win some pizza from coach Taryn Boyce though.
According to the initially announced results, the Bulldogs fell short of the Vikings, 140.2 to 135.1. Despite the loss, their score surpassed 135, which was the magic number Boyce told the team was needed in order for a pizza party.
“The number was big for us,” Batavia sophomore Megan McGee said. “We’ve been working super hard every time we go into the gym and we were able to carry it out into the meet tonight.”
Unfortunately, the number wasn’t as big as McGee imagined as whomever was keeping score (aka pizza party pooper) ended up making a mathematical mistake.
While the original score sheet credited the Bulldogs with an eye-popping 37.55 on beam, the team really only had a 30.9, which lowered their score to an official 128.45 and turned pizza into an afterthought.
While free pizza fun isn’t wasn’t earned, the Bulldogs still left home after a strong performance overall.
“Some of us added some new skills, but nothing much,” Batavia junior Courtney Glassman said. “We just tried to do the best we could and we had some good things and some just OK things. I think we were pretty happy.”
Geneva had to scratch Grace Ginsberg due to an illness, which left the Vikings short-handed the rest of the evening. Ginsberg had an 8.3 on vault, which didn’t count toward the team score before having to call it a night. For the remaining three events, the Vikings had to count all four scores.
“Grace has got a sinus affection. We’ve got to keep her healthy and didn’t want to chance anything, so we went with four the rest of the way,” Vikings coach Kim Hostman said. “It wasn’t our best night, but we still hit a 140 which shows our potential, even when we don’t have our full lineup.”
Freshman Claire Rose Ginsberg paced the Vikings, claiming the top all-around score with a 37. Senior Dominique Brognia followed with a 35 and junior Megan Beitzel had a 33.5.
“It wasn’t our best meet but I still felt like we came together as a team and picked each other up,” Beitzel said. “Now we’ll get ready for (Lincoln-Way Invite) this weekend.”
McGee led the Bulldogs with a 32.75 and Glassman added a 32.05. McGee’s 9.25 on floor was Batavia’s lone score to surpass a 9, while Geneva reached the mark on 7 occasions.