Masconomet takes back girls gymnastics title
By MATT ROY | UPDATED: March 1, 2025 at 10:54 PM EST
After coming up just short of a three-peat a season ago, Masconomet made sure on Saturday that there would be no drama in the MIAA girls gymnastics championships.
The Chieftains led from the opening rotation and never were seriously challenged after that, besting second place Newton North by two points to win a third title in four seasons.
“The girls really didn’t like how last year ended and they wanted this real bad,” Masco coach Vasko Vetzev said.
Consistency was the name of the day for Masco on Saturday as they won both the floor and bar rotations and were second on the vault and balance beam.
The competition was expected to be a showdown between Masco and defending champion Central Catholic. But that went by the boards when the Raiders struggled on vault and were in sixth place after the opening rotation. The Chieftains meanwhile overcame two falls on the bars to lead the Tigers and Mansfield.
The beam exercise in the second rotation helped give Masco a lead that was never to be seriously challenged. Their score of 37.550, capped by Fallon Eberhardt’s 9.450 along with a 9.675 from Sarah Aldrich and a 9.575 by Ava Nolan, turned a .175 lead into a 1.025 lead at the midpoint of the competition.
The only question at that point was if Masco was going to open the door for the competition to get back in striking distance. And after the Tigers put up a 37.400 on the beam, the pressure was on and Masco responded with the best floor exercise rotation of the day.
Aldrich, Kate Mugge and Nolan all scored 9.350 or better as the Chieftains headed to the vault needing only to stand up their routines to win a title.
And that’s exactly what Masco did, capped by a 9.650 from Young to clinch the title for the Chieftains. The only question left at that point was who would fill out the podium.
Newton North insured its second place with a 36.675 on the floor. Mansfield then used a brilliant bar rotation to overtake Danvers for third place.
Central Catholic did have one bright spot on Saturday as Zinnia Hopkinson was the top individual performer on the bars, beam and floor to overcome a 10th place on the vault en route to a 38.475 all around score. Danvers’ Kaylee Wescott was just behind in second and Aldrich and teammate Mugge sandwiched Danvers’ Camryn Donovan to round out the top five.
