Eastbayri.com

SWANSEA, MA — Mt. Hope High School gymnastics coach Melissa Gendreau earned a toss into the foam pit at Paramount Gymnastics for lying to her team when the Huskies split their meet with West Warwick and Exeter-West Greenwich Saturday afternoon.

Gendreau let it be known to her gymnasts prior to the meet they had to beat Exeter to qualify for the Class B Championship. The Huskies did just that, scoring a 122.65-113.5 triumph. But after the meet was over she told her athletes they already had qualified. That prompted Gendreau’s son Corey, with much urging from the applauding gymnasts, to deposit the coach into the pit.

“We clinched actually last meet but I didn’t tell the girls that,” the coach said. “So they thought that they had to win today that’s why they’re all mad. That’s why I got thrown into the pit.”

The Huskies, despite being edged 124.55-122.65 by West Warwick, were in a jovial mood. They sewed up third place to earn a state-meet berth and it was senior day where Ashley Silva, Audra Morrow and Mariah Monzi, as well as three total seniors from the other two teams, were honored prior to the meet. Then they went out and posted their highest team score of the season.

“One-twenty two is a huge score. Every meet we’ve gotten a lot stronger. We haven’t gone backwards yet this year,” Gendreau said. “We’re missing two of our girls, Allyiah Benford and Mariah for school-related stuff and we still got our highest score of the year. They should be back next week.”

The 5-3 Huskies were to have concluded the regular season with a meet against 6-2 Warwick and 0-7 Toll Gate Sunday. West Warwick’s win over Mt. Hope Saturday enabled it to finish a perfect 10-0. The Class B Championship Meet will be contested at the same time as the Class A Championship Meet and the Midge Palmer Individuals Championship Sunday, Feb. 18, at 1 p.m., at Rhode Island College.

On Saturday the three teams first competed on vault and uneven parallel bars. When each was through West Warwick held a 1.85 edge on Exeter and a 1.9 lead on Mt. Hope. The efforts of Lauren Irons (8.45), Taylor Sousa (8.25), Morrow (8.15) and Silva (7.5) enabled the Huskies to compile a 32.35 score on vault.

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West Warwick had a 32.65 in the discipline while the Knights had a 31.5 score. On bars Irons had her second straight 8.45, while Sousa had a 7.3, Morrow a 6.55 and Silva a 3.75 for a 26.05 total. The Wizards increased their lead with a 27.65 while the Knights scored a 26.95. While Gendreau fears balance beam most, she knows she needs more help on bars for the Huskies to push their team score to the next level.

“Bars are the toughest event if you’ve never done gymnastics before,” said the coach. “You’re not just going to get bars overnight. It’s really, really difficult. We’ve got to get one more solid score. The fact that we have six girls that can swing bars is really good but we need one more strong score to make a difference.”

Mt. Hope was the best on balance beam, recording a 30.95 score which included Irons’ 8.15, Morrow’s 7.85, Sousa’s 7.75 and Silva’s 7.2. West Warwick had a 30.9 and Exeter a 27.55. Despite winning the event the Mt. Hope gymnasts and coach knew they could have done better.

“(The judges) were hard on both bars and beam today because I usually do better on those,” Morrow said. “Even though I increased the value of both my routines they still scored me lower. I was a little disappointed with how I did on bars because I usually don’t get in the 6’s.”

“We were definitely lower on beam,” said Gendreau. “We usually take more than one 8 on beam. Usually we have two or three 8’s.”

Exeter was the first team to complete the meet scoring a 27.5 on floor for its overall 113.5 mark. The Wizards compiled a 33.35 floor score and Mt. Hope basically equaled it with a 33.3 tally. Irons had the best routine, a 9.05. Morrow and Sousa each had an 8.2 and Silva scored a 7.85. Irons finished with a 34.1 all-around score, Sousa had a 31.5, Morrow a 30.75 and Silva a 26.3.

“I think we were holding some things back,” Morrow said. “Some didn’t do fly-aways on bars and I didn’t do my layout on floor and I didn’t do another tuck at the end of my routine. So we’re saving some high quality things for states if we get there.”

Morrow learned after the meet the Huskies indeed had clinched a postseason spot, a position the coach was unsure of at season’s onset.

“I honestly didn’t know how it was going to turn out this year,” Gendreau said. “I do know it’s still a building year. We’re a Division B team. Division B teams are built like this.

“It’s not kids that come in with full routines on every event. You never know how you’re going to do. But we’re doing a lot better.”