Batavia posts season-best score
'Tis the season to be jolly and the Batavia girls gymnastics team has good reason to be cheerful after posting a season-best score and easily defeating Fenton on Wednesday, 138.95 to 118.8.
"Can't we just say 139?," Bulldogs coach Taryn Boyce joked. "I actually really like our chances of scoring a 142 or 143 this season. It's definitely something that can happen this year as long as we stay on our events."
Most of the key gymnasts are back from last year's record-setting team. Last winter the Bulldogs set a school-record score of 141.55, won the 24-team Niles West Invitational and captured local bragging rights by beating Batavia and St. Charles co-op at the annual Tri-Cities meet.
Combining the efforts of all-arounders Danae Fuqua, Rachel Besic, Allesandra Bronzino and newcomer Emma Gear, the Bulldogs simply overmatched the Bison with skill and difficulty.
Fuqua led the way for Batavia, winning bars (9.05) and floor (9.1) en route to top honors in the all-around. Besic won the vault (9.45) and finished third in the all-around (35.15) and Bronzino was third on beam (8.65) and floor (8.9).
"Nothing in particular stood out tonight," Boyce said. "I guess there was a little more solidness to our routines."
The Bulldogs were forced to count five falls on beam, which is something they need to overcome if they hope to be one of the elite teams once the end of January rolls around.
"Our first few meets we had eight or nine falls," Boyce said. "We actually did pretty well and instead of two falls for a few of them it was one fall so we are making some kind of improvement."
It's these small progressions toward perfection the Bulldogs are making now that they hope will pay dividends and improve their scores.
"I think we're still building our confidence," Batavia assistant coach Doug Bucholz said. "Tonight the judges said the execution was a little off on beam and that's because the girls aren't as confident yet as they need to be. But it's a snowball effect and we'll keep gaining and gaining, especially when we have some time off and then over the holidays."
Another gain for the Bulldogs should come from the improved health of Gear who is recovering from elbow surgery.
"She's coming along nicely and going to be a hard hitter for us in a couple of weeks," Bucholz said. "It just takes awhile to regain confidence in your body."
As for confidence in each other, that looks to be a given for this bunch.
"I think they are all used to their club ways of working hard," Bucholz said. "They've all grown up and known each for a long time and so they kind of feed off of each other. It's not one standout, but a group of seniors to sophomores that sticks together and is working hard."
There was one gymnast wearing green as Jordyn Madden made St. Edward proud by winning the beam (8.75) and finishing second in the all-around. Although the Lady Wave do not have a gymnastics team, Madden is allowed to compete as an individual.
Like it has for at least the last four years, Fenton loaded onto the bus after being defeated by Batavia. But, things are looking brighter for the Bison who were led by freshman Sarah Polvie's all-around (33.4).
"We're still really struggling on bars," Fenton coach Paula Parat said. "I only have one girl who can do giants, but we've got more gymnasts than we've had in prior years who have some experience and we've only had a couple injuries so far, so we're pretty excited."
Men's basketball
Aurora 84, MSOE 80: Aurora University defeated the Raiders of Milwaukee School of Engineering in overtime 84-80 Wednesday night in Thornton Gymnasium.
Control in the first half was split between the Spartans and Raiders, as the half ended with a score of 35-35. AU shot 50 percent (13-of-26) from the field.
Again, in the second half AU and MSOE each scored 36 points, making the score 71-71 entering overtime.
In overtime the Spartans were able to outscore the Raiders 13-9, earning the win.
Top Spartan performers were junior forward Shane Roland with 25 points. He was 8-of-13 from the field and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line. Junior guard Dusty Magee posted 14 points. Sophomore center Skyler Ormsbee had 14 points and senior guard Chad Trudo 13 points.
The win improves the Spartans to 4-4 overall and 3-0 in the Northern Athletics Conference. The overtime loss cost the Raiders their perfect record, dropping them to 6-1 overall and 2-1 in the conference.