Eastbayri.com

PROVIDENCE — The Mt. Hope High School gymnastics team came up with its best effort of the season but couldn’t gain ground on the competition when it placed third at the Division Two Team Championship Sunday at Rhode Island College.

The Huskies, the third of three teams to qualify to compete in the event, compiled 124.175 points but couldn’t surpass champion West Warwick (128.05) or runners-up Warwick (126.425).

“It’s our best score of the year. We can’t complain,” Mt. Hope coach Melissa Gendreau said. “I know the girls’ expectations were a little bit higher. But it’s a state meet. Everybody’s scores went up.

“Everybody came through with their best. We added difficulty in, we added bonuses in and it shows because our scores went up.”

The Huskies started the meet on balance beam and were shaky in their opening discipline. Their individual scores were fairly high but could have been higher if not for the half-point deductions for falls from the beam.

Ashley Silva and Audra Morrow each scored 8.0, Taylor Sousa had an 8.05 and Lauren Irons had a 7.55 for a 31.7 total. Silva was the lone gymnast not to tumble from the device. Sousa and Morrow each fell once and Irons, the best gymnast on the squad, fell three times. Those five falls alone cost the Huskies 2.5 points which would have enabled them to leap over Warwick and into second place.

“You can’t win a state championship with all those falls on beam,” Gendreau said. “It was a tough way to start. It was like, ‘OK, we can have fun now.’ “It’s tough because the kids know when they fall off the beam that much their hopes kind of go down a little bit. The gymnasts know what it means.

“I just saw from the look on Lauren’s face. She knew right there her chances were close to none at that point. But you never know what can happen.”

Warwick and West Warwick competed on the apparatus later in the meet. Warwick had a 33.9 score while West Warwick had a 31.75 total.

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The Huskies moved onto floor exercise next and earned a 32.175 score. Irons apparently forget her beam mishaps and came through with an 8.825 effort. Sousa had an 8.1, Morrow an 8.0 and Brianna McQueeney a 7.25. Mt. Hope actually held a slight lead over each of its competitors after each had finished two events.

Then it was onto vault. Irons again led the way with an 8.65. Sousa had an 8.55, Morrow a 7.95 and McQueeney a 7.4 for a composite 32.55 score. Surprisingly, the Huskies led West Warwick by 1.675 and Warwick by 3.75 heading into the final event for each squad.

But the separation quickly diminished as the Huskies had to vie on uneven parallel bars in their last event, their shakiest discipline all season. Irons had an 8.15, Sousa a 7.4, Morrow a 7.25 and McQueeney a 4.95 for a 27.75 total. West Warwick scored 33.3 on floor exercise and Warwick had a 33.75 on vault.

“Our bars are our weakest,” Gendreau said. “We had to use a 4 for a score. You can’t use a 4 at a championship meet. We added flyaways in, which is a superior and that helped but bars have been our problem all year.”

Irons led the Huskies with an all-around score of 33.175. She came in ranked eleventh in the state with a 34.7125 average.

“She had a beautiful floor, great vault,” said Gendreau. “Then she hit her feet on bars. She lost two points altogether in her score. Without the falls it would have been a 35.175.

“But that’s just the nature of the sport. You’re on or you’re off. You have a good day or a bad day. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Sousa finished with a 32.1 all-around score, Morrow had a 31.2 and Silva came through with a 26.4 four-discipline tally. Mariah Monzi, who had a 6.65 on beam, Silva and Morrow all will graduate and not return to next year’s squad.

“I’m happy with how the season ended,” said Gendreau. “I didn’t think honestly, that we would be here at the beginning of the year. I really didn’t know. I’m proud of them.”