Batavia's beaming after Tri-Cities meet
It's not like the Batavia girls gymnastics team made a New Year's resolution to win the annual Tri-Cities gymnastics meet against Geneva and St. Charles Co-op.
But that's what happened in Batavia on Thursday night, and the Bulldogs gymnasts and coach Taryn Boyce couldn't have been more pleased as the Bulldogs scored a season-best 139.05 and were 4 full points better than runner-up St. Charles Co-op (135.05).
The win ended St. Charles' run of four straight victories in the annual triangular.
"I think this is the first Tri-Cities meet that (Batavia) has ever taken," Boyce said. "It's a credit that we were able to get a season high, which is the best we've scored in I don't know how many years, and we came close to the school record."
Consistency is what allowed the Bulldogs to nearly exceed the 140 score plateau. Their lowest scoring event was bars (34.2) while their highest was floor exercise (35.45).
"We were just very solid tonight," Boyce said. "Their confidence was up tonight and they're pushing themselves in the gym and beginning to realize what they're capable of doing."
Batavia sophomore Danae Fuqua certainly is buying into her ability. She set a goal last night of scoring a career-best of 36 or better in the all-around and finished with the top all-around score of the evening (36.2). She won bars and beam with scores of 9 in each event.
"I just really pulled it together," Fuqua said. "I came in confident and instead of being good in one event or two I came in and was solid in all four (events). I set a goal of scoring a 36 today and accomplished it."
Teammate Rachel Besic was right behind Fuqua, finishing second in all-around (36.1) and winning the beam (9.4).
It proved to be a disappointing evening for St. Charles Co-op, which competed short-handed. Floor exercise state qualifiers from a season ago, Amanda Johnston and Katie Shanel are battling injuries. Johnston's status is uncertain while Shanel was limited to competing on vault and floor exercise on Thursday. She did win the floor exercise (9.3). Danielle Goebbert missed the triangular due to illness.
"Right now we're just trying to get our top three scores before the sectional seeding," coach Amy Lill said. "So we're just really competing against ourselves right now. We got a 140 at Oswego and have the confidence to get back there again if we work hard and keep everyone healthy."
Liz Fairweather led St. Charles, finishing third in the all-around (35.65).
Geneva also wasn't at full strength on Thursday but coach Kim Hostman was still pleased to see her team reach a score of 130.05.
"I'm actually very pleased with hitting a 130 tonight," she said. "We didn't have the full lineup and used some junior varsity kids. I'm still disappointed with all our falls on beam and some of issues we had on vault, and I wish we could've had a better showing in the Tri-Cities, but all in all it was a good effort."
Sophomore Cami Pfetzer (32.5) and senior Katherine Grubaugh (33.0) paced the Vikings as the school's top all-around scorers.