Batavia defeats Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley co-op
There was a rescheduled Upstate Eight Conference girls gymnastics meet in Naperville on Thursday night, but in a lot of ways it was looked at as an extended practice, or a mock meet, for what lies ahead next Thursday — the UEC meet itself.
While the pressure was nowhere near as big as it’ll be next time Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley co-op and Batavia take to the gym at Neuqua Valley, it was a good night for both teams as Batavia scored a season-high 132.55 points and Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley had a 127.15.
The meet was originally scheduled for Jan. 6 but was postponed after school was canceled due to cold weather.
“It’s good for the girls to see some success tonight with the highest team score,” Batavia coach Taryn Boyce said. “And this was after we had a meet against Oswego (on Wednesday) and with Kristi (Zabka) out with a shoulder injury.”
Boyce tweaked her lineup a bit, which included giving junior Rachel Albanese an opportunity to be a part of the five-person vault team. Albanese, up from the JV squad, recorded an 8.55, which while it didn’t count toward the team total, still helped the Bulldogs off to a great start as the team had a 36 on the event for a perfect 9.0 average.
“We did really well on vault so that was a lot of fun,” Albanese said. “Now after being here and warming up on the equipment we’re going to feel pretty confident that we can come back next Thursday and do very well.”
Batavia sophomore Megan McGee was the all-around champion with a 34.8. She also posted meet-high scores on floor, beam and bars.
Junior Courtney Glassman had a 33.4 and edged McGee on vault, 9.15 to 9.05.
Glassman said she’s reached the part of the season where she’s just trying to duplicate the skills and routines that she’s worked on all season.
“I don’t want to go out and be nervous out there trying to do new skills that I don’t know I can do for sure yet,” she said. “If I haven’t mastered it by now, I’m going to hold off with them and do what I know as clean as I can.”
Freshman Cameron Hindel added an 8.95 on vault for the winners.
Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley co-op actually improved upon the 126.85 it scored in the same gym during Saturday’s Neuqua Valley Invite.
Junior Marianna Georgiou found herself situated in third place on floor with an 8.5 and in the all-around with a 32.95, as well second place on bars with a 7.65 and tied for second on beam with an 8.25 to pace the co-op.
Freshman Lexi Beutler was scratched from the floor exercise due to painful shin splints. She took third on bars with a 7.55 and added an 8.6 on vault and 7.85 on bars.
The team’s other two all-arounders were Allison Yu and Veronica Zahn.