Libertyville’s Dunsing gets it done
Jenna Dunsing of Libertyville knows this might be her last, best chance of reaching the girls gymnastics state meet.
It’s a goal that Dunsing has been trying to reach over the last three years.
She made her first appearance back from a grade II ankle sprain suffered at the Palatine Invitational six weeks ago, and another one Thursday night at the Stevenson regional.
She’ll get at least one more appearance.
Dunsing advanced to next week’s Stevenson sectional, tying for second on the floor exercise with Valerie Fung of Niles West with a 9.075 in her best event.
“This was my first real meet coming back,” Dunsing said. “I had rolled the ankle coming off the beam (at Palatine). This was my redemption meet. It felt good to be back, and this is my last year competing in high school.
“It’s been frustrating that if I had a chance to be in competing (in recent weeks), I could’ve been that much better. My floor routine was the best and the closest back from all my events. This is my final push, hopefully to qualify so I can continue in the state series.”
Stevenson won the team title with 140.175, and Libertyville placed second at 138.75.
“It was a little rocky and we had a rough warm-up,” Stevenson coach Judy Harwood said. “We’re a young team and we’re still adding skills. We do have a lot of room for improvement. Our goal was to make it to the sectionals at the beginning of the year.”
The Patriots’ Alyssa Weisberg had the top all-around score of 36.425. She placed first on balance beam with 9.475, second on bars (8.85), tied for third with Libertyville’s Rachel Metcalf on vault (9.15) and finished fifth on floor (8.975).
“I’m excited about the all-around,” said Weisberg, “because I didn’t get to do the bars last year. I’m just trying to put my all into it. I made it a goal for myself to make it to state this year.”
Her teammates Riley Trebilco (35.4) and Becca Feltman-Frank (35.275) placed third and fourth in the all-around, respectively.
Feltman-Frank landed in the top spot on vault (9.4), fourth on bars (8.6), while Trebilco finished first on floor (9.15) and second on the beam (9.25).
Libertyville’s Mariah Lee chalked up top honors on the bars (8.9), fifth on beam (8.875) and fifth in the all-around (35).
“It reminds about cleaning up things,” Lee said. “We’ve seen these scores across the board. I really don’t look at scores. Some parts of my routine were really good. But I just have to focus on the little things.”
Teammate Morgan Dunleavy placed second in the all-around (35.525), second on vault (9.25), third on beam (9.175) and fourth on floor (9.025). Metcalf finished fourth on the beam (9.075).