Geneva already in midseason form

Geneva senior Jenna Ginsberg didn’t expect to spend part of her summer recruiting.

But, she most certainly did her part under her own roof.

Ginsberg persuaded sophomore, Grace Ginsberg, her young sister, to join the Geneva team. Her addition, combined with newcomer McKenna Merges and a great group of returnees have the Vikings in a position where they could ultimately be in the running for their first-ever state finals appearance.

“I told her she’d love every second of being on the team and I convinced her,” Jenna Ginsberg said. “I’m so excited for my final year here.”

With both Ginsbergs in action, the Vikings were at Neuqua Valley on Wednesday and cruised to an Upstate Eight Conference victory over host Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley, as well as neighboring rival Batavia.

Posting a 140.1 in just its second meet of the winter, there was no doubt that Geneva would prevail. The hosts were a very distant second with a 129.15 and Batavia finished with a 128.45

“We’re looking to hit that 140 every time and today we had some problems on beam with five falls,” Geneva coach Kim Hostman said. “We need to regroup there and do a better job on bars. Otherwise, we’ve doing a great job on floor and vault.”

Geneva was pretty much spectacular on vault. All five of Geneva’s gymnasts scored a 9.05 or better with McKenna Merges leading the way with a 9.4 and Grace Ginsberg and Megan Beitzel each adding a 9.15.

Puff led the winners with a 36.65 in the all-around. She won floor with a 9.45 while teammate Dominique Brognia was right behind her with a 9.35.

“I think we did pretty good as a team on vault and floor but are still a little rusty on bars and beam,” Puff said. “We stayed in the 140s again, which is one of our goals though. We’re just going to keep working hard, try to clean things up and try to get to state.”

The young Bulldogs were led by freshmen all-arounders Megan McGee (33.35) and Lauren Stangl (33.65). McGee had a 9.2 on floor.

“For such a young team, I thought they did a very good job tonight and have a lot of potential,” Batavia coach Taryn Boyce said. “We’ve got a lot of young kids who have come in with a lot of skills so it’s a fun team to coach.”

St. Edward senior Abby Madden won everything but floor and finished with an impressive 37.8 in the all-around. Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley senior Jess Malon suffered an injury during warm-ups and did not compete in the all-around. Malon placed second on bars with a 9.25.