WESTHAMPTON — Hampshire Regional coaches Lisa Anthony and Stacy Ashley saw signs of improvement in their gymnastics team during its third meet of the season.
Hampshire hosted Minnechaug Regional and Chicopee Comp Wednesday night in its first home meet of the season. The Falcons won with a score of 129.275, the Raiders were second at 127.35 and the Colts were third at 111.95.
“Tonight was our highest team score of the season so far,” said Ashley, whose Raiders impressed, placing two gymnasts among the top three all-around finishers.
Freshman Catrina Touchette stole the show for Hampshire, ending the night first in the all-around with a combined score of 33.2. Her floor routine score of 8.45, and uneven bars score of 8.05 were good for second place.
It was Touchette’s first ever all-around victory.
Fellow Hampshire freshman Maura Joseph finished third with an all-around total of 31.55. Her 8.3 on the vault was the only first-place finish in an individual event for Hampshire Regional.
Jordan Wytrych, Hampshire’s senior captain and the only non-freshman or younger on the roster, finished just behind Joseph in fourth place totaling 31.3 points.
Hampshire entered Wednesday 1-3 after its first two meets at Minnechaug Regional and Westfield.
“We practice hard every day; this week was no different,” Anthony said. “The kids were all really pumped for their first home meet; they were ready tonight. They got here early for pizza and there were a lot of parents around, it was great.”
This was a big meet for the team’s morale going forward.
“We started out with a 119.95 and we increased our score the second week to a 126.225 and then we went up another point this week, so that’s really nice,” Anthony said. “The first meet we lost by .15, and then the next week we came in second.”
Anthony knows her team is young, so she’s been adding leadership positions each week to properly balance her gymnasts’ roles on the team.
“I’m trying something new this year, because we have such a young team,” said Anthony. “We have 5 freshmen that want to be co-captains, so every week we have a new captain in training.”
This week, that captain was eighth-grader Amelia Craig.
Craig competed in every event except for vault, and received loud cheers from the Hampshire bench each time.
Hampshire closed the meet on the floor exercise and finished strong. Touchette, Wytrych, Joseph and Katelyn Meunier all finished with scores above 8.0 in the event.