Gymnastics: Portage tops Chesterton in DAC showdown

Updated: February 15, 2012 10:30PM

CHESTERTON — With the conference meet now less than two weeks away, two of the top DAC squads met for a dual meet on Wednesday. Portage walked away with the win, topping Chesterton 111.900-108.750.

“This year, we’ve had a total team effort,” said Portage head coach Karen Barcelli, who saw her gymnasts take the top two spots in four of the five events. “Every score has been important to our team.”

Portage junior Mackenzie Barcelli’s score of 37.525 earned her top all-around honors, edging teammate Danielle Solis’ score of 37.450. Barcelli posted the highest scores in bars (9.550) and floor (9.750), while Solis won vault (9.525).

Chesterton’s top performer was sophomore Brandy Tuzinski, who had the highest beam score (9.625) and finished third to Solis and Barcelli in all-around with a 37.0.

“Our whole team really pulled through and made good sets on everything,” said Chesterton coach Lauren West. “I think we had our best night on bars that we’ve had all season — that was especially nice to see.”

Portage, meanwhile, is still searching for answers on the one event that it’s struggled with all season: beam. The Indians had team scores over 28 in bars, floor and vault, but ended up with a 26.975 on beam.

“I don’t know what’s going on with the beam — we’ll have to get that together this week,” said Mackenzie Barcelli.

After the meet, Barcelli was back on the beam, retrying the move that forced her off the beam during her routine. “I just had to redo that one,” she said.

“Even though we had some falls on beam, they did a good job to refocus and not let it bother them for the rest of their routine,” said Karen Barcelli. “That was good—but we still had falls. We’ve really only had two good meets on beam. We’ve got to get there somehow.”

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