Hillsborough gymnasts pull together for great effort

Lynch leads team at Pioneer Invitational

By: Rudy Brandl
   
   Mary-Kate Lynch showed a combination of talent and courage in Saturday’s Pioneer Invitational that epitomized the spirit and determination of the Hillsborough High gymnastics program.
   The Hillsborough High junior made a fabulous return to all-around competition for the first time since dislocating her left elbow six months ago in club gymnastics practice. Lynch finished second in the all-around (37.05) to lead the Raiders to a second place finish in the team standings.
   "It’s probably on the top of my list of most memorable meets," Lynch said. "I was just happy to be able to compete. I’m proud to be able to compete."
   Lynch tied for fourth on floor (9.475), placed ninth on vault (personal-best 9.275) and bars (8.95) and finished her day by taking second on beam (9.4). Her long road back to full recovery still isn’t complete, but Saturday’s performance proves that Lynch is back.
   "She’s worked really hard to get back," HHS head coach Beth Murrin said. "I couldn’t be more impressed with her progress."
   Lynch did not train for four months after suffering the injury. After going through physical therapy two or three times per week, she finally was able to put pressure on the elbow in August.
   "It’s been a while in the stage of recovery and there are good days and bad days," Lynch said. "It’s definitely gotten a lot better. I’ve gotten some of my basic skills back. I’m almost there. There’s still some more healing that will take place."
   Lynch kept things very simple on the uneven bars but executed her basic skills flawlessly to post a solid score. She’ll continue to jazz up her routine as her elbow gets stronger.
   "It was a base routine," Murrin said. "It wasn’t flashy, but she did great with it. She’s really cognizant of putting quality into her routines."
   "Bars is the hardest event to get my skills back," Lynch added. "I’m keeping everything simple and very low difficulty."
   Lynch finished her day with an outstanding effort on the balance beam. This event has given Lynch trouble in the past but she nailed it and compiled enough points to finish second in the all-around.
   "Beam has never been my strong event," she said. "I stuck my aerials, which I don’t normally do."
   The Raiders needed Lynch and the rest of their athletes to come up big after sophomore standout Chrissy Weber had to be scratched from the final three rotations Saturday. Weber’s back injury flared up during the floor exercise and Murrin didn’t want to risk further injury. She replaced Weber with Erica Reiss on vault, Nicole Cicero on bars and Jess Leinbach on beam.
   Leinbach, a freshman competing in her first big meet, came through with a huge performance and tied for ninth place all-around (35.35). Leinbach was most impressive taking fifth place on beam (9.225) as a late addition in the event. She also scored 8.85 on floor and 8.65 on vault and bars.
   "Jess really showed me what she’s made of," Murrin said. "A freshman is always a wild card. You never know what they’re going to do in a meet."
   Hillsborough sophomore Christina Rhoades delivered a key performance for the Raiders, finishing sixth all-around with a personal-record score of 36.5. Rhoades finished eighth on floor (9.2), second on bars (personal-best 9.2) and scored 8.7 on beam, but the highlight of her day came on vault.
   Rhoades unveiled her new Yurchenko piked vault for the first time in competition and scored a personal-best 9.4 to finish third in the event.
   "I’m really proud of Christina, especially on vault," Murrin said. "That’s the first time she competed that vault in high school or club and she nailed it."
   The Raiders scored 109.275 points to finish second in the team standings to Bishop Ahr for the fifth straight year. It was a combined effort that included performances by Weber on floor (8.9), Kristen Shaw on floor (8.65), bars (8.1) and beam (8.1), Melissa Arango on vault (8.75), Reiss on vault (8.55), Cicero on bars (8.05) and Laura Lysyj on beam (8.325).
   "Everyone stepped up and fought together," Murrin said. "I’m so proud of them. They really showed our tradition. We have a team philosophy and what we did exemplifies that."
   "We have a lot of injuries on the team but a lot of the younger girls stepped up and that was really important," Lynch said. "I’m really proud of the team. We held together even after Chrissy got hurt. We showed we really wanted it and we weren’t going to give up."