Glenbard West edges Geneva for title
Dominique Brognia posted the best score among 48 competitors on the floor exercise and Ashley Puff finished fourth in the all-around, but Geneva still fell short of Glenbard West during Friday afternoon’s 16th Annual Oswego Invitational.
The Hilltoppers claimed the title, winning it for the second time in program history (2010). They snuck past the Vikings, 141.65 to 141.225. DeKalb/Sycamore co-op was third with a 140.050.
“I’m extremely happy because it shows that they’re being consistent and doing well,” Geneva coach Kim Hostman said. “We have two strong events and two events (bars and beam) where we’re looking to add some skills.”
The Vikings worked on all four events during practice on Wednesday and Thursday. Brognia used the time in the gym to score a 9.425 on floor.
“I just stuck all my passes and tried to do the best that I could,” she said. “I think practice helped prepare us and we had a really good day today as a team.”
Puff finished with a 35.725. She placed third on vault with a 9.325 and followed Brognia on floor with a 9.4.
Glenbard West wasn’t squeaky clean, but the Hilltoppers were strong enough to squeak out the victory.
“It’s always nice to win an invite,” Hilltoppers coach Carlos Fuentes said. “You always want to put your best foot forward though and we had some misses today that we’ll have to go back and fix. We were good enough to win today, but not good enough for Glenbard West standards.”
Mackenzie O’Keefe led the Hilltoppers by claiming the all-around title, the first of her career, with a 36.775.
“I was kind of bummed that I fell off beam and bars, but was really excited with vault and floor,” she said. “It was just a really fun and exciting day.”
Wheaton co-op placed fifth with 133.35 points. Audrey Channon led the team, taking 12th place in the all-around with a 34.375.
Alyssa Weisberg won beam with a 9.4 to help Stevenson take sixth with 131.025 points.
Jamie Gradishar collected a 31.475 in the all-around to help Glenbard East earn 121.15 points to finish eighth.
Batavia was without its full lineup and settled for ninth place with 97.75 points. Lauren Stangl (33.15) and McKenna Sloan (27.825) each competed as all-arounders for the Bulldogs.
St. Edward’s Abby Madden fell short of another all-around title, placing second with a 36.425.