Milford Mirror

Law edges Foran for second (SCC meet)

Tuesday, 14 February 2012 15:32

Nobody was going to catch the Daniel Hand High gymnastics team when the Southern Connecticut Conference held its annual meet at Jonathan Law High School on Friday. So, the battle for second was very much wide open.

Enter the Law and Foran teams, who battled all night long, and in the end the Eagles scored the team victory with 123.4 to Foran’s 120.6.

Individually, Lions’ freshman Kayla Gyger had the best all-around score among the two schools, as she posted a 33.45 to take seventh place overall.

Hand scored a meet record 139.55 and had first-place finishes in all four events.

“Like all the sports, we have a friendly, but intense rivalry with Law,” said Foran coach Tracy Ruotolo, now in her eighth season.

Ruotolo is a native of Pennsylvania who attended the University of Bridgeport on a gymnastics’ scholarship.

“The kids on both teams spent quite a bit of time with each other during and after the season.

“I think our nerves kicked in a little because this is such a big meet. But, overall, we did as expected. These girls work so hard to prepare for this. It’s nice to see them do well.”

A skilled performer, Gyger was fourth in floor exercise (8.8); sixth on the balance beam (8.1) and seventh on the bars (8.0).

Law’s top gymnast, junior Valerie Coleman, was eighth in the all-around, scoring 33.15 points.

She was fifth on the bars (8.3), had seventh-place finishes in both beam (8.0) and floor exercise (8.4) and was eighth in vaulting (8.45).

“We’ve had years where we’ve beaten Hand, but they’ve been the dominant team of late [with four straight championships], said Law coach Pat Simon, a veteran of 31 years and a former gymnast at Southern Connecticut State University.

“The key for them is their feeder programs. They get kids who’re already high-level gymnasts when they come in as freshman.

“I’m very happy with what our kids did. They performed their routines well.”

Simon cited the performances of Coleman, Danielle Novak, who came back after suffering a serious arm injury last summer, and Abby Shackett.

Novak was seventh on the beam (8.0); eighth in vaulting (8.45); ninth in floor exercise (8.1) and on the bars (7.5) for a ninth-place finish in the all-around (32.15).

Shackett turned in a 10th place finish in the all-around (28.90) on the strength of showings of eighth in floor exercise (8.3) and 10th on the beam (7.5).

Foran’s Elissa Paulino, a junior, was 12th in the all-around (31.10) while finishing eighth in ninth on the beam (7.6) and 12th on the bars (7.0).

Foran’s Megan DeMaro was 14th in all-around (30.20) on the strength of her ninth-place showing in floor exercise (8.1) and a finish of 13th on the bars (6.8).

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