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02/13/2022 11:00 PMThe Haddam-Killingworth/Morgan/Westbrook (H-K/M/W) co-op girls' gymnastics team did anything but disappoint when it competed at the Shoreline Conference Championship last week. Head Coach Monica Bauer's squad captured its league crown by putting forth a first-place performance in the Shoreline meet, which was hosted at ABC Gymnastics in Old Lyme on Feb. 11.
H-K/M/W tallied an overall team score of 133.3 points in its victory at Shorelines. The team finished ahead of runner-up Valley Regional (122.15) and third-place Old Lyme (99.2) to win the title.
"We really had a strong meet, with the exception of balance beam. We normally do a bit better on beam. However, we really bounced back during the vault portion of the meet," Coach Bauer said. "These girls nailed their routines, and it was a solid meet overall."
The H-K/M/W gymnastics team features five athletes from three different high schools. The gymnasts on the Cougars' roster are junior captain Juliana Gagliardi, who goes to Haddam-Killingworth; junior Megan Cafferty, who attends Morgan; sophomores Hannah Freund and Rebecca Rosenblum-Jones, who go to Westbrook and H-K, respectively; and freshman Jayani Bennett, an H-K student.
Going into the Shoreline Championship, Coach Bauer felt confident that her athletes had both the ability and determination that was needed to claim first place.
"I did suspect that we could come away with the win in this meet. There are some higher-level athletes on this team," said Bauer, who is also head coach of the Valley Regional gymnastics team. "Some of these athletes are a bit more seasoned and, with the progress that they've made this season, I felt like they were poised to come away with the win."
Gagliardi finished first for the all-around scoring at Shorelines, while Cafferty took second place in the all-around for H-K/M/W. Rosenblum-Jones followed suit with a fourth-place finish. Gagliardi totaled an all-around score of 35.85, Cafferty finished with a 34.00, and Rosenbaum-Jones posted a score of 32.00. Freund also competed at the meet.
"All four of the athletes that competed in this meet had their scores count, which definitely put more pressure on them," Coach Bauer said. "Valley is [composed] of several more athletes, so it could have been a closer meet. I think this co-op team did a great job, and they all brought it to the table when it mattered the most."
Gagliardi took first place in three of the four events on the day on her way to finishing first all-around. Gagliardi earned top honors for the vault (9.45), floor (9.3), and bars (8.8) and also took second place on the beam (8.3).
Cafferty finished first on beam (8.6) to highlight her all-around second-place performance. Cafferty also placed second on both vault (9.1) and floor (8.8).
Rosenblum-Jones notched a second-place finish on the bars with a score of 8.1. Freund finished third for the floor by scoring an 8.4 for H-K/M/W, which will be competing at the state meet later this month.
"We are looking forward to states. As of right now, Juliana is ranked second on the floor and fourth overall in the state," said Bauer. "We want to see some of these girls go to New Englands. We have a competition against Hand and then one final home meet to close out our season prior to states. We want to use those meets to get better before it matters the most."
With a Shoreline title in the books, Coach Bauer has high expectations for what the Cougars can accomplish during the final stretch of the winter campaign.
"Now that we're nearing the end of the season, these girls all know what to expect. At first, some of the girls were going in not knowing who they were competing against, but now they have a much better idea as to what they need to do in order to win," Bauer said. "I can't wait to see how the rest of this season finishes out."