Lancer Gymnasts Finish Up Second at Pinkerton Meet

Coach Heather Tuden’s Londonderry High gymnastics squad finished a solid second to its powerful host in a five-team meet at Pinkerton Academy on Thursday night, Jan. 29.

The defending state champion Pinkerton Lady Astros tallied a superb team score of 136.75 to win the meet handily, but Tuden’s Lady Lancers notched a fine score of 128.8 to easily outdistance the Salem High Lady Blue Devils (121.35), Bishop Guertin of Nashua (112.2), and the Dover High Green Wave (109.5) in winding up second.

Tuden and her assistants Emily Panacopoulos and Rachel Blais, wound up with plenty of reasons to be pleased with and proud of their charges.

“With only having one practice this week due to the snow, we feel the girls did great,” said Tuden. “Pinkerton has a lot of talent on their team, but then again so do we. It will all come down to how the girls compete at states.”

The Lady Lancers’ top individual performances came from veteran standout Jill McIntire, who won the floor exercise competition with her score of 8.85 and tied for third place on vault (9.0).

“We had strong vaults from Jill, Maddie Baumann, Mira Kutney, and Taylor MacKenzie, and Jordan Dufresne, Courtney Bahatuan, and Maddie Baumann put up solid bar scores,” said Tuden.

On balance beam, Londonderry had Tyla Kelley, Jessi Pignone, Camille Lamont, and Gianna DelViscovo put forth strong efforts, and along with McIntire’s win on floor the Lady Lancers got impressive floor efforts from Rachel Larkin, Pignone, and Kutney.

“Other competitors who did well, included Skylar Roy and Hailey Endyke,” added Tuden.