Gymnastics defeated South 144.38-117.8 in its first season meet in the SOA on Tuesday, Dec. 17, coming close to securing a new school record. The meet concluded with a standout floor routine by senior Molly Haughton, a captain along with seniors Sofia Dukakis and Kristina Petrukalis, whose performance contributed significantly to the win.
“I think for the first meet of the season it went really well,” said head coach Cassie Ford. “There were some mistakes and things to work on. But overall we did great, and we were only a couple of tenths away from the school record that we beat last year.”
The meet started with North on vault and South on uneven bars. North scored a solid 36.2 on vault before transitioning to their best-scoring event of the night, bars. With every North athlete scoring over an 8.5, the team finished bars with a meet-high score of 36.42.
During the break before the final two events, the girls practiced their tumbling skills and brushed up on flips for floor and beam.
On beam, Dukakis, delivered a near-flawless performance, staying on the beam the whole time and nailing her dismount, to score an impressive 9.35. Junior Samatha Shu and sophomore Simona Batista-Ciani also excelled, earning scores of 9 and 8.7 respectively. The team wrapped up the beam event with a score of 35.3.
Dukakis felt her performance was strongest on the beam and was happy with her high score. According to Dukakis, she tried to stay calm despite her usual nervousness when competing for beam, as the competition and pressure was not too intense this meet.
“It was the hardest at the end of the routine, since I was the last at the routine and South had finished floor, it was pretty dead silent. So I had to stay in the zone and not worry about anyone else that was watching me,” she said.
The final event of the night was floor. Closing out the meet, Haughton ended her floor routine with four perfectly-landed passes. She scored a 9.4, alongside Dukakis’s 9.1 and freshman Lucia Grapski’s 9.2 to round out North’s total floor event score of 36.4.
“I love competing on floor, I think it’s so much fun. I love tumbling and everything,” said Haughton. “The hardest part of my routine was my first pass, it was a back handspring half punch front pike.”
With the end score of 144.38, the team was a few tenths away from clinching the school record of 144.6. With such a strong start to the season, the team can only imagine what heights they might reach after further practice and competition.
According to Ford, the gymnasts have been training by emphasizing conditioning and adding in new skills to increase potential start values. Soon, they plan to hold a clinic with a judge to refine their routines.
“I think it’s gone really well. I am really excited for the entire season, we have a lot of great people this year,” said Haughton. “Everyone who’s competing does club gymnastics, so I think it’s gone really well. In the future when we have a better meet, I can only imagine how it’s going to feel.”
North, 1-0, will compete against Walpole at home Friday, Jan. 3.