HART — Hart has been competing against itself much of the West Michigan Conference season. Last Wednesday, the Pirates scored a big win in that competition.
The Pirates had their highest-scoring round three and overall score of the WMC season in their home jamboree, racking up a 309.4-point final round and 728.58 points overall to roll to another jamboree win. Hart beat second-place Mason County Central by 42.54 points. Shelby placed sixth, with 605 points.
Hart was never threatened, holding a nine-point lead over MCC after round one and only growing it the rest of the night.
“Any time we’re going into a competition, we are striving to get perfect 10s,” Hart coach Jen Hlady said. “And we did tonight; we got a perfect ten in our round three perform abilities. So I couldn’t ask for more from the girls.”
With only seven athletes on the team, Hlady said it was impossible to give any one person more credit than the others for the team’s success, which has been a constant all season.
“Really it’s the team collaboration working together,” Hlady said. “Everyone has a part. Every girl on the team takes the mat. There are only seven girls on the team. We need them all.”
The Pirates did well executing their tumbling passes in that third round, and stunt and base work were also spotless.
Hart is in position to earn yet another WMC championship after this week’s final jamboree at Mason County Central, and then eyes will turn to the postseason. The Pirates were in Division 3 last year, making their road to state much more difficult. They’ve moved back to D-4 this year, which makes a return to state an achievable goal.
“We are going to be working very hard to get back to state,” Hlady said. “Being back in Division 4, that helps us. We’re ready to tackle our district. We’re not just going to compete. We want to get the trophy. We want to get the metal district and regional (trophies) and make it back to the state finals.”