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The South Side Lady Cyclones gymnastics team is wrapping up one of their best seasons in school history and head into the final week of the regular season with a strong chance of winning the conference title.

South Side has won seven of its eight meets in addition to a first-place finish at the cystic fibrosis benefit meet in Oceanside on Jan. 19. Four days earlier, the Lady Cyclones remained in contention for the ultra-competitive Conference I championship by edging first-place Oceanside by .10 to move within percentage points of the leaders entering this week’s action.

South Side (7-1, 6-1 Conference I) had a crucial matchup with fourth-place Port Washington (6-2, 6-2) on Tuesday after presstime and will host Massapequa (7-1, 6-1), the team it is tied with for second, in the season finale on Thursday. Oceanside lost to Massapequa on Monday and has only Wantagh (2-6, 1-6) remaining on Feb. 4.

“It’s anybody’s game,” Cyclones coach Ashley Harney said of the conference logjam. “It’s just who’s going to bring the hardest work and who’s going to bring the best team that day.”

Ironically, Harney was “nervous” at the start of the season because she felt many of her gymnasts were not physically and/or mentally prepared to compete due to a perceived lack of offseason training. She particularly noticed slower than normal equipment setups during practice and the girls giving themselves more downtime in-between reps.

“Some of the girls who came back were pretty much not going to gyms in the offseason, so [they] were nervous getting back on the equipment,” she explained. “I would definitely say trying to get them to wake up a little and tell them what was going on with the other teams, that was a big factor.”

But her concerns quickly evaporated after South Side rolled past Hewlett on Dec. 10 before closer victories against Plainview-Old Bethpage, Sewanhaka and Cold Spring Harbor. The Lady Cyclones finally fell to Bethpage for their only blemish of the season on Jan. 3 and the third-year coach used that defeat as a teachable moment for her squad.

“That was a big wake-up call,” Harney said of the loss.

South Side rebounded to beat Wantagh and Long Beach before its grueling match with Oceanside. The Lady Cyclones won the vault by .05 points and the bars by .08, but the Lady Sailors rallied to take the beam by another .08 margin. South Side clinched the 165.25-165.15 victory after winning the floor by 1.05 points.

Newcomer Gillian Pinsky recorded an 8.7 on the bars and a 9.1 on the beam, while fellow sophomore Erin Agoglia and freshman Payton Waller tied with an 8.25 on the vault. Another new freshman, Emma Doyle, scored an 8.4 on the beam to help lead South Side.

Waller, Agoglia, Pinsky and sophomore Sydney Brancaccio have already clinched spots in the state qualifier in multiple events and Doyle will join that group if she secures a score of 7.9 or better on the beam in either of the last two contests.