Gymnastics takes FCIAC crown

STAMFORD -- A return to the top characterized the Darien gymnastics team last Friday at the FCIAC championships.

After falling .175 short of winning FCIACs last year, Darien captured its second FCIAC title in three years by scoring 135.85 points and besting second-place Wilton (131.3) by a comfortable margin at Westhill in the nine-team field.

"I'm very proud of them," Blue Wave coach Salina Tavella said. "The YMCA program behind them helped them and they are a confident group of girls."

Depth played a major role in Darien's success, as all five of its all-around gymnasts finished in the top 10 overall, including three in the top five. The Blue Wave finished first on vault (35.0), floor exercise (34.375) and the balance beam (33.825) and were second on the uneven bars (32.65).

"It feels great and I'm proud of the girls," junior captain Charlotte Morgan said.

Junior Morgan Whitehead led Darien by finishing third as an all-arounder by scoring a 34.275. Although she did well, she hopes to do even better at states and state open.

"We all came together as a team and I'm glad we finished first," Whitehead said. "We worked hard on it. Personally, I hope to improve on bars and beam. The judges explained the deductions and I hope to improve on them at states."

Whitehead won vaulting (9.2) in sticking her suke vault.

"The vault was near my friends and I was excited with their cheering, which gave me an adrenaline rush," Whitehead said.

She also won floor (9.175) and combined power and grace in sticking her tumbling passes that consisted of layout double twists and layout full twists.

"I was so excited to wrap up the meet and the team was excited," Whitehead said.

Her sore back impacted her performances on beam (8.35), where she had one fall and earned a medal by placing sixth, and bars (7.55). She was 15th on bars and hopes to rest, which will help her back mend in time for states.

"Surprisingly, bars and beam hurt my back the most and I hope to be completely healed by states," Whitehead said.

The fall on beam came during her back tuck, which doesn't deter her.

"Other than that, I stood on beam, which was my goal," Whitehead said. "It's something I rarely fall on and it was a surprise but it's easy to fix."

Morgan was fourth overall with an all-around score of 34.075.

"I was very happy with my performance even though I had mess-ups in every event except for vault," Morgan said.

On vault, she was third overall (8.9) by sticking her front handspring full.

"I tried to stick my landing and get as much height as possible," Morgan said.

She was on floor (8.65) and was graceful on it. Morgan got the momentum on it by sticking her roundoff, back handspring, back layout and it carried over to her second tumbling pass, a front tuck step out, back handspring, back tuck. She ended it well by sticking front handspring, front layout.

"I focused on doing my routine to the best of my ability, especially sticking all of my tumbling passes," Morgan said.

On beam, she scored an 8.425 to finish fifth and on bars, she tallied an 8.1 to place ninth. Despite one fall, she had a strong beam routine in sticking her back handspring, roundoff, front walkover, beat jump, switch leap, straddle quarter front tuck dismount.

"I was happy with beam even though I fell during my three quarters jump, which was disappointing, but I regained my confidence and focused on each individual skill after that," Morgan said.

Sophomore Katherine Mosher was tied for fifth (33.25).

"I did well because of the team support and I did well because I knew it was a big meet," Mosher said.

Mosher did her best on bars (8.7) and finished second overall. She stuck her two giants, free hips and flyaway layout dismount.

"Practice was hard because it wasn't the best equipment but I performed like I did in practice and it definitely paid off," Mosher said.

She was tied for ninth on vault (8.35) by sticking her front handspring, full pirouette, was tied for eighth on beam (8.2) and tied for 10th on floor (8.0).

"I had a lot of power and I ran hard on vault," Mosher said. "The power gave me the confidence to land it."

Sophomore Katie Southworth took sixth place (33.2).

"FCIACs was a lot of fun this year and it was a team effort," Southworth said. "I had a pretty consistent meet and I tried to concentrate the whole meet and get through FCIACs to the best of my ability."

Southworth was consistent in placing in the top 10 in each event, starting with her highest score (8.55) and sixth place finish on vault. She got off a great jump in sticking her full twist vault.

"Vault was a lot of fun and we had a lot of energy going into the first event of the meet," Southworth said. "It also helped having [former Blue Wave Coach] Tovah [Vincent, who stepped down after last year because she moved to Westbrook] cheer for us in the first event."

Although vault was her highest score, she had her best placement on bars (8.3), where she took fifth place. She stuck two free hips and two giants on bars.

"Bars was challenging because I forgot my grips and I had to use [freshman] Lauren's [Medwid] grips, which was difficult, but I tried to pull through," Southworth said.

She was tied for eighth on beam (8.2) and ninth on floor (8.15).

On four other teams, freshman Lauren Medwid would have been its second best gymnast, on Trumbull, she would have been its third best gymnast, and on three teams, she would have been their top gymnast. All of her scores would have counted for the team tally on all other teams except for vault on Wilton.

But for the deep Blue Wave, Medwid's 10th place finish (32.2) was their fifth best score and only her beam score counted for the team total.

"Finishing 10th out of everyone at the FCIAC meet was so exciting for me," Medwid said. "I was sort of surprised because I know that this is only my first year competing for Darien High School but it was a great accomplishment of mine and I hope to do even better at FCIACs next year. We had a lot of people who came to support us at this meet, including some parents and some coaches and gymnasts that some of us know from the YMCA Gymnastics Center. Everyone on the team also made an extra effort to cheer each other on while we were competing. We really tried to keep the pressure down and to just have fun with this meet, and that is what we did. We definitely had a lot of fun, and winning the meet made it even better."

On beam, she led the Blue Wave and was second overall (8.85), just .05 short of tying the beam champion.

"On the previous event, bars, many of us made mistakes and a few of us fell, so when it was time to go to beam, I think we all really wanted to turn the meet around and be the great gymnasts that we know we all are," Medwid said. "I was very determined not to fall off on beam because I had fallen on the previous event and it was one of the biggest meets of the season, so I really wanted to do a nice, clean routine.

"I competed my front walkover back handspring connection, which I have been working really hard on. I managed to keep from getting nervous and was just so excited when I saw my score because it is my highest score that I have gotten all season. I was extremely happy that I got second place on beam and that the team got first."

Medwid scored an 8.0 on vault to finish tied for 14th, a 7.9 on floor to finish tied for 11th and a 7.45 on bars.

Junior Elsa Imbimbo was tied for seventh on floor (8.4) and tied for 14th on vault (8.0). Sophomore Kiriko Masek celebrated her birthday by scoring a 6.3 on bars and a 5.75 on beam.

Next up for Darien is the state championship meets on Feb. 27 at Pomperaug High. The Blue Wave will find out if they are in Class S or Class M next Wednesday.

Morgan said, "There's room for improvement for the rest of the postseason. We hope to make State Open as a team."