The West Chester women’s gymnastics team opened up their season exactly how they wanted to, with two convincing wins that proved their ability to contend at an even higher level than they did last year.With West Chester’s 2-0 record at the start of the season, they are showing probable improvement from last season, where they won only three meets the entire season.
West Chester opened their season at Rhode Island College on Jan. 15 with a win over the Anchormen by a score of 177.800 to 169.350. With no graduating seniors last year, this meet saw the return of last year’s squad with a few notable additions.
Freshman Kaley LaFleur came in first place on the balance beam en route to winning the all around competition. LaFleur, who came to West Chester from Seminole, Florida, is expected to continue to be one of West Chester’s top performers this season. She will join returning sophomore Alli Aquila as an all around performer.
Another newcomer, Rachel Pearson, won the floor exercise with a score of 9.400. West Chester also got help from their veteran members with Alison Mitrosky and Felicia Massaro posting the highest scores on the vault. Alli Aquila won the uneven bars before coming in second all around.
With their season-opening win in Rhode Island, West Chester gained the momentum they needed to beat SUNY Cortland in their home opener on Saturday, Jan. 23. The gymnasts competed in front of a crowd of friends, family and alumni alike as the team held a reception for alumni after the meet. The meet was site to an exciting and dramatic finish as West Chester climbed from behind to capture the win. West Chester trailed SUNY Cortland by 0.850 points before entering the fourth and final rotation of the day, the floor exercise.
The floor exercise proved to be West Chester’s strongest event as they took first, second and third in the event and posted a remarkable score of 46.325. This score was enough to give them an edge over SUNY Cortland and win the meet 180.275 to 179.125.
“I knew the meet would be close,” second year coach Barbara Cordova said. “Our strongest events are beam and floor, so I knew it would come right down to the end. Our strong finish on the floor enabled us to finish on top against a strong Cortland team.”
Kaley LaFleur finished in first place all around for the second meet in a row. She was supported in second place by sophomore Alli Aquila. Rachel Pearson posted an impressive 9.550 on the floor to finish first overall in that event. Pearson was the only Golden Ram other than LaFleur or Aquila to finish in the top three in any of the events.
Reaching a score of 180 was a team goal of last year that was never reached. Now that they’ve hit their target early in the season, West Chester is looking to improve on their already high level of competition.
“[Reaching a score of] 180 was a starting goal this year, so now we hope to stay in the 180 range,” Cordova said. “The thing we need to work on is getting rid of any falls on bars and beam.”
West Chester will be back in action on Sunday when they travel to New York to take on SUNY Brockport. They do not have another home meet until Feb. 20th when they rematch Rhode Island College.
Amy Festa is a third-year student majoring in English with a minor in Journalism. She can be reached at AF649219@wcupa.edu.