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Sports
Upping the ante : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisUpping the ante
| Balance beam score lifts gymnastics to season-best score
| by Kristin Sharp
| 1/10/2013
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The month of January brings a difficult list of competitions to the Oswego co-op gymnastics team, but the squad set the tone at the Lincoln-Way East Invite last Saturday.
The team opened the 2013 schedule with a fourth-place finish and season-best score of 136.95, and Oswego was nearly the best on the balance beam for the day.
Fremd won the invite with a 146.425, and was the only team to better Oswego on the beam by less than four-tenths of a point.
Geneva finished second (141.35) followed by Glenbard North (139.95) to round out the top three teams in the 12-team invite.
"We started off so great," Oswego head coach Sarah Dugan said. "We keep topping our high score, which is good. They all landed their vaults, so that was really great to see."
Oswego's score was also an improvement from a 134.40 scored just one week earlier at its own home invitational on Dec. 28.
"We really haven't had too many (scores) before then. It was the first meet at home for most of the girls, other than the freshman meet earlier in the season, so it was nice to finally have a home meet on our own equipment and finish off the first part of the season on a good note," Dugal said. "It's nice to see the full lineup because we start looking at the postseason and what lineup we want to use for regionals and sectionals."
Oswego started the day on the vault, and sophomore Emily Flammersfeld scored an 8.9 to place 12th overall. Sophomore Auguste Fahrlander landed a new vault to receive her highest score of an 8.75, and senior Kathryn Maher scored an 8.65 while junior Michelle Munoz completed the team total with her 8.25.
"Auguste has a vault she's been trying to land at meets and finally did, so she received her highest score and that was exciting," Dugan said.
"Emily has been consistent with her vault, getting an 8.9, so that's been a couple weeks in a row now. They all had a great start."
Oswego moved onto the uneven bars and was led by Maher's 9.1, which was good enough for eighth place overall. Flammersfeld scored an 8.8, senior Amanda Padlo received an 8.6 and Munoz scored an 8.2 for the team.
"We've been talking about how our bars have been strong lately, so that was great to see," Dugan said. "Kathryn scored a 9.1, which is her second 9 on bars this season. It's exciting that she knows she can get that. Everyone did what they were supposed to do."
On the balance beam, four of the five competitors stuck their routines to give Oswego an impressive score of 35.60 thanks to a pair of 9's. Flammersfeld scored a 9.25 while Maher received a 9.15 in the event, followed by Munoz's 8.75 and sophomore Megan Dobbertin's 8.45.
On the floor, Flammersfeld scored an 8.7 while Padlo scored a 7.95, Fahrlander scored a 7.75 and Dobbertin scored a 7.7 to complete the team score.
"We had three really strong events and just wanted to finish it off well," Dugan said. "We went on floor and they did everything they were supposed to do. We had some low scores there - a few little mistakes - but we finished fourth. I was really proud of them. They went out and did everything they were supposed to do. I can't ask for any better effort. I was really happy."
Flammersfeld placed ninth in the all-around with a score of 35.65, and Maher scored a 34.55.
Oswego will now enter the Fremd Invite on Saturday at 1 p.m. before a triangular with Batavia and DeKalb at home on Wednesday. A triangular with Geneva and Fenton arrives on Jan. 23 to close out the regular season before Oswego hosts the conference meet on Jan. 26.
"DeKalb is really strong and will be a challenge to beat," Dugan said. "We're excited about Fremd, and normally we only get to compete five girls, but in this meet we get to compete six. We're going to change our lineup so we can see who will be the best fit for the regional and sectional team. We hope we can find the best lineup by being able to fit one extra person in this weekend."
Dugan expects to learn Oswego's regional assignment next week, and Oswego's season-best score could certainly lend to hosting a regional meet at the end of the month. Regardless of what happens in the coming weeks, Dugan is pleased with her team's overall effort and growing confidence in each event.
"The 9's have really boost their confidence. They're in a great position," Dugan said. "They know they're capable of that, and they've put in the work so to be judged and rewarded for it definitely helps. The last three meets, we've improved by a point and that's exciting to see. We look forward to possibly hosting regionals."
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