Blue Dukes Break School Record in Gymnastics Invite

When is finishing second a reason to celebrate? When second place sets a school record for overall team score.

Whitefish Bay gymnastics did just that Saturday afternoon, finishing one-tenth of a point short of Arrowhead at the 18-team Bradley Invitational at Whitefish Bay High School but still setting a new school record for overall team score by five one-hundredths of a point.

“We hit a school record today, so I don’t think you can complain about (finishing second) today,” Bay head coach Mary Liniewski said. “(The girls) really did a good job today. We had a new vault today; our girls vaulted well. Bars we struggled a little bit on but I’m really proud of the girls and honestly when you hit a school record … I really couldn’t be more excited.”

As a team, Bay scored 143.2, topping its previous record of 143.15.

The Dukes started off the day with an impressive showing on vault. Junior Kelly Danek opened things up with a solid score of 9.075, which was good enough for sixth overall at the end of the day. Classmate Maggie Anderson followed up Danek’s result with a 9.375, good enough for first place, edging out Arrowhead’s Emily Burke by .025.

While Danek and Anderson both placed, coach Liniewski said all four of the girls that competed in the event were huge for the team on Saturday.

“On vaulting we exceeded expectations,” Liniewski said. “Kelly Danek hit above a nine; her vault was beautiful. Eileen (Demet) just started learning this vault two days ago and started getting it in practice so we had her compete and she hit it and that really helped; it added about another four tenths so vault went off really well.”

After Anderson’s early success on vault, it almost would seem she had an individual battle going on with Arrowhead’s Kirstyn Wood as the two took a combined six first- and second-place finishes on the four routines.

Anderson finished first on vault and second on uneven bars and floor exercise while Wood took the top spot on bars and floor and finished tied for second with Bay’s Margaret Fitzpatrick for second on balance beam.

In the end, Anderson got the final word as she beat her friend Wood in the all-around individual score, 37.275 to 37.2.

While the Bay junior was honored to take the individual top spot Saturday, she was quick to praise her team and is already looking for improvements.

“(Beating the school record) is incredible,” she said. “We had some errors, too, during this meet and the fact that we beat the school record and we still had errors is huge motivation for us that we can even go higher.”

Also placing for the Blue Dukes was Sofie Yang, who took fifth on beam with a score of 9.175, while Danek also placed in the all-around scoring, finishing sixth with a 35.5.

In the end, Liniewski said the Blue Dukes’ near first-place finish carried a familiar theme.

“It’s kind of our life story,” Liniewski said. “Last year we got edged out by a tenth at state and that’s what happens. A couple times we’ve lost at state by a tenth and that seems to be the magical number for us. So we’ll go back. I have a lot of confidence from this meet; Arrowhead’s a big, Division 1 school … so I’m not going to complain about (finishing second).”

The Blue Dukes host Homestead on Tuesday evening as their final dual meet of the regular season.