Batavia's banner year continues with another title

You can add another triumph to the Batavia gymnastics team's growing list of achievements this season.

Batavia was clearly too much to handle during Saturday's Independents Conference meet at Geneva, with Bulldogs' gymnasts winning three of the four events and producing the top two all-around scores.

Batavia finished comfortably ahead of runner-up Riverside-Brookfield, 141.075-137.6.

"We've really come together as a team and compete as a team and it shows," said Batavia's Danae Fuqua who was edged in the all-around by teammate Rachel Besic, 36.05 to 35.9. "We've been able to stay relaxed and not let the competition put pressure on us and everything good comes after that."

The team balance definitely was in full swing on Saturday as Fuqua won the bars (9.05), Besic won vault (9.625) and Alessandra Fuqua put on quite a show with her floor routine to take top honors (9.325).

"It's just a lot of fun out there," Fuqua said. "The team has really helped me out with keeping me motivated and working hard and I was very excited that it worked out today."

Competing on its home turf is usually a good thing for Geneva, so it certainly came as a surprise to coach Kim Hostman to see the Vikings struggle down into fifth place with a 127.775.

"It was the last meet and some extra pressure, but we're used to doing very well here," she said. "Hopefully we can get things squared away and be better next week."

What hurt the Vikings most transpired during early morning warm-ups when Cami Pfetzer injured herself in the midst of her dance series on beam and withdrew from competition. In addition, the normally reliable Katherine Grubaugh had two falls on floor and only posted an all-around total of 32.625.

"That was very uncharacteristic of Katherine and unfortunate for Cami," Hostman said. "But the other girls did their best in trying to step up."

Glenbard South finished in fourth place with a 128.425. Michelle Kohout finished in fifth place on the vault (8.95) to lead the Raiders.

"We did pretty well today," Raiders coach Donna Murphy said. "The girls are working hard on some new tricks. We hit most of our floor, some falls on beam, but we're definitely seeing some improvement."

The Raiders have only a few days to prepare for the state series. They'll compete in the Glenbard North regional on Wednesday while Geneva and Batavia have additional time to get ready. The Bulldogs head to the St. Charles North regional on Friday evening and the Vikings travel to Glenbard West on Saturday afternoon.