Cronin helps York slip past Lyons Twp.

Haylee Williams was sidelined with a back injury, so York was thrilled to have Megan Cronin back.

Cronin finished third in the all-around and helped the Dukes edge Lyons Twp., 131.65 to 130.25 in a West Suburban Conference Silver Division meet on Monday in Elmhurst.

"I don't feel like I did my best today, but I felt OK and we got our first win so I was excited about that," she said. "One of our goals was to get our first win in conference, so we did an awesome job in getting that. We didn't have a lot of falls, although I fell, but I was happy for everyone overall."

Cronin had been in Virginia for a family function over the weekend but returned on Sunday. She was set to compete in three events but became the team's lone all-arounder after Williams was unable to go.

"No one usually does all-around for us, which is something I like about this team," Cronin said. "I hadn't warmed up to do beam. It's my least favorite event but I filled in for Haylee because her back was hurting."

Lyons has been hurting opponents for years, having won back-to-back state championships in 2013 and 2014. On Monday the night belonged to the Dukes.

"We were 0.1 away from our season high from last year," Dukes coach Anthony Colant said. "This might not be Lyons' best season, but we pulled it off so we'll definitely take it. This is our first conference victory since I've been here the past two years and I know for the two years before I was here too, so we got that first one, which is always nice."

All eight gymnasts who competed for York contributed to the team score in multiple events except for Jessica Dryden. But Dryden only competed on vault and won the event with the lone score to top a 9 in any event, earning a 9.1.

Cronin led the way in three events, while Rachel Lawson, Sarah Mapes, Maya Moran, Zikora Nnan, Olivia Romano, Lailah Waddell each did so in a pair of events.

Romano tied Olivia Kolata, who won the all-around with a 34.25, for the best score on beam with an 8.4 while Cronin took second place on vault and bars.

"Every meet we're trying to score higher," Moran said. "We want to do our best and we know each judge is different so you never know which meet you're going to score higher. We're taking it all seriously and as every meet goes we're going to try to keep doing better and improving."

Even if they have do it on a dreaded Monday.

"Mondays can usually be very hard because there's no practice before the meet," Moran said. "I think we pulled this one off well together, which was a nice surprise. I've been on varsity all four years and it's really cool to score this high during my senior year, so I'm excited for whatever comes next."