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Show PCHS Women Gymnasts Prepare To Defend 1-A Tide Text and Photos By Jim Smedley a 6-1 hi i VI j y j : ....... ..!tL - i irj 1 I-1 - -i.linfW - " fJt.... Connie Hamilton mounts the bar The girl's high school gymnastic team will begin defense of its 1-A crown Thursday night when it travels to South Rich to compete in a five-way meet. Tintic, Duschene and North Rich will also be at the meet with South Rich and . Park City. Gymnastic coach Gail McBride said Duschene poses the biggest threat in the Miners drive to its second title. "Duschene has junior high meets so the girls can be seasoned before heading into high school competition," McBride said. Our program pro-gram is at a little disadvantage disadvan-tage because first I have to meet the girls, teach them and then throw them out into the meets their first year. "I still think we're the top 1-A school because of our depth and because the girls work longer and harder than most other schools," said McBride. Coach McBride said Connie Con-nie Hamilton has been a solid performer for four years and believes she will do well this year. She said she expected big things from sophomores Terri Potts and Susan Mahoney. Hamilton won first place in the all-around competition in the region last year and placed second in all-around in the State Tournament. Mahoney took first place in the optional beam and second in the all-around optional at the Region meet last year, and was first in the optional bars and fifth in optional floor at the State meet. At the compulsory level, McBride pointed to senior captain Lisa Thaller, junior, Margo Mahoney and sophomore sopho-more Anita Miles to place very high this year. Thaller placed second in the region and first in the state optional beam competition last year. Miles gave a strong performance in the regions capturing first in the all-around, vault and beam competition. She was fourth in the state all-around exercise. Mahoney was third in the floor exercises in both region and state. McBride said upcoming ninth graders to watch are Kelly Bolton, Amy Irvine and Kim Robinson. Strengths and Weaknesses "Our team strength is in the optional floor and beam exercises. The girls have really worked hard in these areas," McBride said. "Most of the girls have tumbling background so we will be okay there, but it will take awhile to get our bar routines up. Everything done on bars requires strength and at the beginning begin-ning of the season the girls aren't that strong." McBride said the weakness weak-ness of the 19-member team is the bars and vaulting , areas. She said 'one of the reasons these two, exercises are lacking because of the way the work area was set up. "It takes a special manu-vering manu-vering of the equipment to make enough room for the girls and we just need more practice," McBride said. The gymnastic team will have three meets this year before the sectional meet at Emery High School on April 3. After the South Rich meet the same five schools will meet on March 12 at Duschene and on March 26 at Park City. The state meet will be at Brigham Young University on April 9. This year there will not be an exclusive 1-A championship champion-ship as in 1980. The 1-A and 2-A schools will be competing compet-ing together. The last time Park City had to compete with 2-A schools was in 1978 and 1979, when it took fourth and fifth place respectively in the state meet. "In order to have your own championship 50 percent of the schools in division must compete. Well, 1-A and 2-A schools didn't meet that requirement so we combined," com-bined," McBride said. "We rather have our own meet but combining with 2-A schools is better than not ' having a meet at all." Lisa Thaller is enroute to successful completion of vaulting exercise. miyittrifriiinr f - Lisa Thaller demonstrates on the beam. Connie Hamilton demonstrates the jig. |