David Taintor

In addition to it being the final regular meet of the season, the UW-Eau Claire gymnastics team held Seniors, Parents and Exhibition night on Friday at McPhee.

Head coach Jean DeLisle said there are four team members leaving the team this year as they are at the end of their eligibility and/or are graduating: Leah Gilseth, Theresa Lynch, Staci Solin and Anna Sutherland.

The Lady ‘Golds hosted Gustavus Adolphus (Minn.). Despite several successes in all four of the events, the team fell about three points below Gustavus Adolphus with a score of 175.725.

DeLisle focused on what made Friday a great night.

“We had a lot of great successes actually that probably overshadowed the things that didn’t go as well,” DeLisle said.

The team opened the evening with this season’s best event – vault. Following that, the team moved on to the uneven bars. While the opposing team tied for the first two positions, Eau Claire gymnasts took the following four top spots. DeLisle said junior Karlee Shaw, who took fourth place, hit her routine perfectly and achieved a career best in the event.

“We’ve never seen her do it better than she did it Friday night,” DeLisle said. “That was, by far, one of the strong points of the night.”

Shaw said she was so excited about her performance that she screamed.

“All the work in the gym that I’ve been doing finally paid off,” she said.

In addition, Shaw said she was really proud of the team despite the falls they took.

“(But) this was the meet to do it in,” she said, adding that next week at Winona, she hopes there will not be any falls.

In the final two events of the evening, DeLisle said two of the team’s seniors, Lynch and Sutherland, hit their routines on the balance beam. Lynch returned to floor at this meet for the first time since an injury last year. Lynch, who hasn’t competed on floor since March of 2007, ended up taking second place in the event with a score of 9.200.

DeLisle said there have been a number of strong steps taken, and most of the falls during the event occurred because of added difficulties to routine.

The Lady ‘Golds will travel to Winona next Friday for the 2009 WIAC Championship. DeLisle said the team’s biggest obstacle for this meet is not about the team’s talent, but rather, their mind-set.

“I think . they have a lot of doubt because the season has been what it’s been,” she said, “It’s been a relatively tough season.”

DeLisle said the upcoming WIAC Championship is incredible because of the fact that all the teams there have beat or won against one another and would not count a single team out.

“It’s going to be a really exciting meet, as far as the overall team and individual completion,” she said. “We’re all playing the same game on the same day, so it will be (based) on which team pulls it all together.”