York's Gagliardi Reaches State Gymnastics Finals on Floor Exercise [VIDEO]

York senior Alyna Gagliardi made the most of her final opportunities as a high-school gymnast at the IHSA state meet at Palatine High School.

After earning her first state apperance, Gagliardi not only advanced to the event finals with her final routine on floor exercise Friday but she then improved her preliminary score and seed to finish seventh with an impressive 9.425 Saturday.

State event qualifiers among the top 10 preliminary scores at state advanced to Saturday's finals. Gagliardi shared the final floor score to advance, a 9.375 that tied for ninth place. Preliminary scores do not carry over to finals.

Gagliardi’s last chance to reach the finals came on floor as the 51st of 64 entries, which included gymnasts in the all-around or team competition. In her other qualifying events, Gagliardi tied for 14th on vault (9.5), just .1 from the cut for finals, and tied for 22nd on the uneven parallel bars (9.025).

York junior Meghan Davidson, a 2012 state finalist on beam, just missed advancing again in her third state trip for the event. Davidson tied for 15th (9.1),  also only .1 from the finals. Davidson was sixth in the 2012 beam finals.

Gagliardi peaked at state on floor after taking fourth at the York Regional (9.0) and tying for fourth (9.3) at the Glenbard West Sectional. In their other state-qualifying performances at sectionals, Gagliardi was third on uneven bars (9.225) and tied for third on vault (9.525) and Davidson was third on beam (9.15).

York also finished strong as a team. The Dukes scored a season-high 140.70 at sectionals, the Dukes’ first score over 140 this season, after successive season highs at the West Suburban Conference Silver Division Meet (138.65) and regionals (139.15).

York posted the 13th-highest sectional team score in the state but still shy of the 142.45 at-large cutoff to qualify for the eight-team state meet.

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