Lady Trojans give Mann Senior Day win

The Weston gymnastics team gave senior captain Kailie Mann the perfect going away present -- a victory. Weston raised its record to 2-9 with a 95.05-91.4 home victory over Westhill (1-8) on Monday in Mann's last meet ever at Weston Middle School.

"I think it's bittersweet," Mann said. "It's sad it's my last home meet but I'm glad we did well."

Mann had an all-around score of 21.25 and had her best performance on vault where she tallied a 7.05. She accomplished it by leaping high and sticking her handspring vault.

"I focused very hard and I took the coach's comments in practice to heart," Mann said. "I channeled everything into it."

The captain also did well on floor exercise and scored a 6.8. She showed a lot of energy in dancing and jumping gracefully to techno music in sticking her back handsprings and front handspring.

"Knowing it was my last routine at home was on my mind and I wanted to give it all I got," Mann said. "I wanted to make my teammates proud and myself proud as well."

Mission accomplished -- not just for vault and floor, but for her three years of service to the team and her leadership this year as well.

"Kailie did well today," Lady Trojans Coach Salina Tavella said. "Her wrists were hurting her but she pushed through it."

Tavella was pleased with the other six gymnasts as well. She was determined to make sure Weston had a better meet than it did last Friday when it scored an 89.4 and had a 30-minute practice before Monday's meet.

"I'm so excited," Tavella said. "We had an emergency practice before the meet today because we didn't do well on Friday."

The Lady Trojans did well on vault (29.2) and floor (28) and cut down their falls on the balance beam (20.95). Despite only scoring 16.9 on the uneven bars, Tavella was pleased with her team's performance on it.

"I felt [sophomore] Lena [Romaldini and Meredith [Marcus] had their best routines on bars," Tavella said.

Sophomore Alexis Gandal led Weston with an all-around score of 27.

"I thought we did well today," Gandal said. "It was a lot of fun and I felt good about all of my routines."

Vault was Gandal's best routine as she finished second overall by scoring a 7.8. She got off an excellent jump to stick her handspring half twist.

"I just focused and I didn't think of anything else besides my vault and I did my best," Gandal said.

On floor, she scored a 7.3 by sticking her back handsprings, back layout, front handspring and back tuck. She was the beam champion (6.7) and was respectable on bars (5.2).

"I didn't rush it and I took my time so I'd have energy for all of my tricks," Gandal said.

Freshman Andrea Janis had an all-around score of 25.85 and was especially happy with her performances on floor and vault. Janis finished fourth overall on floor (7.4) in showing poise during her dance moves. She stuck her back handsprings, front handspring and back tucks with a graceful performance.

"I tried to get my toes pointed more because the little things matter," Janis said.

On vault, she got off a strong leap and stuck her handspring half twist.

"I've being doing a half, which has a higher point value than a front handspring and I run fast," Janis said.

Sophomore Maddie Ratte showed improvement on vault (7.0) and floor (6.5). Marcus had an all-around score of 13.8 and did her best on vault (5.8). Romaldini also continued to make progress on vault (5.2) and freshman Sarah Levin displayed some bright signs for the future.