The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
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CONFERENCE CHAMPS: Gymnasts cruise at league meet
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: March 1, 2007
Until further notice, the South Central Gymnastics League belongs to Saline.
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If a second straight undefeated league regular season wasn't enough, the Hornets proved their point again by cruising to a second straight championship at the SCGL meet Feb. 21.
Saline's total of 134.925 was nearly a whopping seven points ahead of second-place Ann Arbor Pioneer's 127.95. Tecumseh was third with 127.175.
"We had our team-high score so far this season at the league meet. That's exactly what we wanted," said head coach Paul Van Slambrouck. "We're peaking when it counts.
"I expected maybe a little more concentration on one or two events, but overall they did extremely well."
Van Slambrouck said that after defeating Pioneer and Tecumseh during the regular season, he was confident his team would "probably" take a decisive victory.
"But you can't take that kind of approach as a team," he said. "You have to show up and perform and not worry about any other teams."
If the Hornets ever worried about the meet's outcome, it never showed.
Saline began on the vault, with the scores of Rachel Cole (8.25), Paige Cederna (8.4), Kristy Richart (8.4) and Karen Thompson (8.45) giving the Hornets a total of 33.4. Thompson's score was good for sixth place in the event, while Cederna took ninth. Seniors Brittany Holloway (8.0) and Moriah Grooms (8.1) also competed in the event.
The effort on vault gave Saline an early .35 lead on the Pioneers and it would only grow from there. On the balance beam, Holloway (8.025), Cederna (8.325), Thompson (8.35) and Brooke Pleger (8.525) scored for a 33.225 total. Grooms recorded a 7.025 in the event while Kara Williams received a 7.65.
All four Hornet scorers on beam finished in the meet's top 10 in the event. Holloway was 10th, Cederna seventh, Thompson third and Pleger third.
Saline would repeat that feat on the parallel bars as Pleger (8.1) took seventh, Richart (8.15) sixth, Thompson (8.2) fifth and Cederna (8.4) fourth. Holloway's 7.75 and Grooms's 6.3 rounded out the Hornet efforts.
The commanding Saline performances on beam and bars all but wrapped up the SCGL title as they took an all-but-insurmountable 99.575-94.645 lead into their final — and strongest — event, the floor exercise.
The Hornets didn't disappoint. Cederna scored a 9.2, the top score handed out at the meet in floor. She was followed by Pleger with a 9.2, which was good for fifth. Williams had an 8.65 (ninth), and Cole had an 8.6 for a total of 35.45.
Grooms collected her season-high in the floor with an 8.0, while Holloway propelled herself into the top 10 of the all-around standings with an 8.5. Holloway finished seventh overall with a score of 32.275, three spots behind teammate Cederna, who recorded a 32.325.
Van Slambrouck said it was the first meet of the season in which the Hornets had not counted a single score under 8.0.
"They're tourney tough," he said. "Moriah had a great performance on floor, Brooke did very well, Paige brought everything together … The team was just consistent throughout. They just had an excellent meet."
Part of the benefits of that excellence extend beyond just the SCGL title. The Hornets will now turn their focus to the regional meet at Plymouth-Canton March 3.
After another round of regional-qualifying scores at the SCGL meet, eight different Hornets will be competing. They are Holloway, Pleger, Williams, Thompson and Cederna in all four events, Cole in the vault and floor, Richart in the vault and bars, and Grooms in the vault.
Van Slambrouck said the Hornets grabbing the top-three finish to qualify as a team was "a possibility" but that it would likely require a score of at least 142.
It was more likely the team would send gymnasts as competitors in individual events. A top-eight score (or a top-six in the all-around competition) at regionals is necessary for state qualification.
"It's easier to make it individually. And everybody's got the potential to make it," he said. "In every event, we've got a few girls who could advance to state."
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