The Hand gymnastics team was seeded fifth out of eight squads heading into last weekend’s Class S State Championship. The Tigers outperformed their ranking by scoring a total of 129.825 points to finish in third place at the state meet, which took place at Law High School on Feb. 23.

Hand only placed behind first-place Woodstock Academy, which finished the day with 143.5 points; and runner-up Stonington, which scored a 130.675. Tigers’ Head Coach Kelly Smith praised her gymnasts for stepping up on the state stage by nailing their performances.

“The fact that every girl counted towards our team score today shows the team effort we put forth. We had a few small mishaps, but if someone made a mistake, a teammate made up for it. They trusted each other and themselves to get the job done and, in the end, we had 16-for-16 in hit routines that counted towards our team score,” said Smith. “We needed everyone on the team to step up, and we needed to hit like that to sneak in to third place. I’m not sure we’ve had a 16-for-16 meet yet this season, so what a way for them to go out as a team this year.”

On the vault, senior co-captain Grace Rogers and junior Carly-Anna Barba both scored an 8.65 for the Tigers. Freshman Paige Dean followed with an 8.5, while senior Alara Nahar scored an 8.225. Moving to the bars, Rogers finished with an 8.2, Dean recorded an 8.05, Barba scored a 7.0, and sophomore Kayla Cataldo earned a score of 6.825.

For the beam, Rogers turned in an 8.6, Dean totaled a score of 8.075, freshman Riley Caruso scored a 7.4, and senior Catherine Aranow finished with a score of 7.3. Rogers had previously won the beam at the SCC Championship, where Hand finished in second place. On the floor exercise, Rogers led Hand by scoring an 8.9 at states. Dean scored an 8.85, Kelley Levis finished with an 8.45, and Cataldo posted a score of 8.15 for Coach Smith’s club.

“We had four hit beam sets to start the meet and had the second-highest beam team score to set the tone for the rest of the meet. Those four hit routines were key in setting the tone for how our competition would be,” Smith said. “We also had the added challenge of ending on bars, our weakest event. But they pulled through to the finish exactly how they started with hit routines, and that’s how we were able to edge into third.”

Rogers qualified to compete in all four events at the State Open by virtue of her performance in the Class S Championship. Dean qualified to compete in the floor exercise at the Open, which is taking place on Saturday, March 2.

Coach Smith was happy that the Tigers avenged a few of their regular season defeats by leapfrogging those same teams at the state meet. Smith said that Hand displayed great poise on its way to taking third place.

“During the regular season we lost to Law and Mercy twice and Oxford once. We also placed behind Mercy at SCCs and behind Oxford at the Pomperaug Invitational. We had to beat all three of these teams today, and we knew it would be a tall order to sneak in to third. We scored higher than our season average and just slightly below our best team score. They really came to perform and did exactly that,” said Smith. “We couldn’t be prouder of these girls today. The pressure was on, but they rose up to that pressure, smiled in its face, and enjoyed the moments. They are a small and very close-knit team, and that energy has helped propel us to what we’ve accomplished this year.”

Smith added that the Tigers have shown tremendous growth throughout their ups and downs this season. She was pleased to see some of Hand’s incoming freshmen mesh with the team’s veterans to produce a campaign filled with progress.

“Four freshmen came in and two, Riley Caruso and Paige Dean, immediately stepped in as all-around performers and were important contributors all year long,” said Smith. “Members of our senior class made incredible progress. Catherine Aranow became a huge three-event contributor with new skills on floor and bars and a consistently hit beam routine. Alara Nahar learned a new vault as a senior and turned in her best vault ever and her career-high score at states today to count for the team.”

From the Sidelines

For team scores on events, Hand finished second on the beam (31.375), third for the floor (34.350), third on the vault (34.025), and fourth for the bars (30.075) at the Class S State Championship.

In the team standings, placing behind Woodstock Academy, Stonington and Hand, were Oxford (129.5), Law (126.5), Mercy (126.025), Ellington (122.425), and Old Lyme (121.7).

The State Open Championship will take place New Milford High School at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 2.