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Winchester High gymnastics head coach Candice Lentini Maher began her 25th year along the Red & Black sidelines against host Woburn and Reading in a tri-meet on Jan. 8.
Her gymnasts ended up defeating Woburn, 132.95-125.35, but lost to the Rockets, last year’s Middlesex League champs, 137.45-132.95.
The Red & Black then went up against Stoneham back in Woburn on Jan. 14, where they took care of the Spartans, 139.25-125.85, before dropping a 139.8-136.5 close decision to the host Wilmington / Bedford co-op the next day to even their record at 2-2.
Lentini Maher, who was the program’s assistant coach for one year prior to taking over the top post, has compiled one league championship and a bunch of seconds, including another one last year, when they finished up with a 6-2 record. Jess Kelley, a former Winchester gymnast, is once again her assistant coach.
The veteran coach has 20 talented gymnasts on this year’s roster, and she likes what she sees.
“We have a pretty staunch team this year that has a lot of depth,” she said.
This year’s club is led by captains Mason Lieberman, Grace Farina, Rose Marino and Arushi Swaminathan.
“The beam is our strongest event this season, along with the floor exercises, while we have been getting better on the parallel bars the last couple of years,” said Lentini Maher. “We are also very consistent on the vault.”
The meet against Stoneham was an eyeopener for the coach. Among other things, she loved the number of points – close to 140 – that they were able to garner so early on in the season.
Marino (9.1) finished first on the vault against the Spartans. Sophomore Violet Bogovich (8.4) accounted for second. Junior Vanessa Knowles and Farina (8.2) completed the sweep in a tie for third-place.
Bogovich (9.3) went to the head of the class on the bars, followed by Knowles (9.1) in second and Marino (9.0) right behind her in third.
Junior Lily Stevens (9.45) and Marino (9.35) topped the ticket on the beam. Knowles (8.9) was fourth. Bogovich (8.45) was credited with a first-place finish on the floor exercises. Freshman Isabelle Nghiem and Farina (8.4) tied for second. Julia Elder (8.1) came in third.
There was not much time to rest for the Winchester girls, who were back on the mat the next night at Wilmington. Nonetheless, they were still able to keep things close against the Wildcats.
“We had a couple of falls, but for an early season meet we did very well,” said Lentini Maher.
Marino (9.25) came in second on the vault, while Farina (8.65) settled for fourth. Knowles came through with a second-place finish on the bars. Begovich (8.45) and Marino (8.4) closed out the event in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Stevens (9.0) and Marino (8.95) were third and fourth on the beam. Bogovich (8.7) ended up in a tie for second on the floor exercises with her Wilmington counterpart. Marino and Nghiem (8.6) tied for fourth.
Senior Rachel Dunlap is ready to return to the lineup after recovering from an ankle injury sustained during last year’s league meet, which should make the overall roster more difficult to beat.
The coach singled out the emergence of freshman Mia Stuart after what she has been able to do the last few weeks in practice.
“(Stuart) has a lot of potential, and so far, has had good beam scores in the mid-eights, while she continues to work on the other three events,” Lentini Maher added.
Joe McConnell is a longtime, award-winning sports editor for numerous North Shore publications. He began covering Winchester sports for the News in November 2024.
