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The Bryan Vikings needed to rally. A&M Consolidated's Abbie Thompson was on the mark from the beginning.
The Vikings took three individual wins and Stefan Quartemont won the all-around title, leading his team to the regional gymnastics championship Friday at A&M Consolidated's Tiger Gym. The Vikings claimed the team title with 341.2 points.
Thompson led Consol to a second-place finish in the girls' team race. The Lady Tigers returned to the state meet by scoring 224.5 points but fell behind Kingwood, which won the regional crown with 228.075.
"As the fan, I'm extremely happy for the boys and the job they did," Bryan coach J.T. Fletcher. "As the coach and critic, I know we've got a lot of work to do. We had a lot of mistakes today."
Although her team lost the first-place spot it held beginning Friday's optionals, Consol coach Julie Foght was pleased with her team's day after a second-place finish.
"It was a great day," Foght said. "We had to be in the top three [to advance] and we had almost a five-point lead over the fourth-place team, so we were pretty comfortable coming in today. The girls did really well and hit."
Thompson won on the uneven parallel bars. She was second in the vault and fourth on the floor exercise. She tied for second place with Amy Conoley of Round Rock in the all-around behind Round Rock's Rachel Grunloh, who was an individual winner on the balance beam.
"It was a pretty good day, except I made a couple of mistakes on beam," Thompson said. "We started on the vault and I hit two solid vaults right away. It was a good start to the meet. I was nervous about bars and beam, because there's always a good chance of falling on those two, but when I hit [them] I was really confident about the rest."
Elyssa Trejo of Consol placed second behind Grunloh on the beam. Trejo was 11th in the all-around, but Debra Roussel finished eighth.
"It was great to be here in the home gym," Foght said. "We had tons of support and the energy was fantastic."
The Bryan boys, the defending state champions, were able to overcome disappointment in one apparatus by immediately coming back with a strong performance on the next. Quartemont, who had led the parallel bars after the compulsories Thursday, fell from the bar in his optional routine.
"The rails are probably two inches lower in our gym and when I went up, I didn't get enough lift and couldn't pull my body up, so I missed the mount," Quartemont said. "I've never done that all year. It was embarrassing. "
Quartemont followed that setback with a near-flawless performance to win the high bar gold with a 9.9. He had a long wait before being cleared to begin.
"It's definitely uncomfortable just standing there waiting," Quartemont said. "You have the adrenaline pumping and your eyes are kind of flashing. The pressure builds up."
His difficult routine was crowd-pleasing.
"The hardest part was the jam, where I stick my feet between my arms and come out," said Quartemont, who stuck his layout back-flip dismount. "My shoulders roll under. I dislocate my shoulders, swing a giant and re-grab."
Likely the tallest gymnast in the competition, his long body made Quartemont's successful routine look majestic.
"It's fun to have people in the audience wonder how tall you are and say you look so cool doing that," Quartemont said. "It's a blessing, I guess."
Bryan's Alex Reyes was second to his teammate in the all-around, but he had his struggles.
"On my first event, I fell," said Reyes, a senior. "I don't know. Maybe I was too excited. There was a lot of pressure throughout the whole meet. It's hard to fall on your first skill, but you've just got to get up and do your routine."
The top three teams and top 10 gymnasts in each event qualify for state.
"I think everybody had their mistakes, as far as the three big guns go," Fletcher said. "Some of the less-experienced guys came through with big scores, like Michael Gonzalez. For the third week in a row, he's covered for some of the guys that missed on [parallel] bars and has produced some nice scores on parallel bars."
Gonzalez countered Stefan Quartemont's 8.7 by scoring a 9.2.
Enoch Rodriguez shared first in the pommel horse with Michael Bynum of Humble Atascocita.
While the Vikings savored the win over Kingwood, which has been a rival all season long, they know they will have to be great to do it again at state.
"At state, on the first day of competition, we'll get to follow them," Fletcher said. "I still think they are the team to beat. I like to see our region do well. Of course, I'd like to see Bryan on top, but would like Kingwood to be second."
Fletcher was pleased that the regional meet was held so close to home, but is happier about when it was held.
"It's going to be nice to have 2 1/2 weeks to go back and prepare, where some other regions may just have a week and a half," Fletcher said.
