Wheaton Warrenville co-op wins first DVC title since 2000

Based on their season-best scoring totals during the regular season, only 1.95 points separated the top four teams in the DuPage Valley Conference this year.

That meant that Friday’s DVC meet at Glenbard North didn’t have a particular favorite and would come down to which team would hit most often, which proved to be Wheaton Warrenville co-op, which won its first conference title since 2000 with a 140.075.

“We knew it would be a really close one,” Wheaton Warrenville co-op coach Maureen Latimer said. “And coming in, you really didn’t know what routines you were going to get from all the teams.”

Latimer was pleased with most of the routines she saw from her team, including Lenna Klein, who won vault with a 9.45, Audrey Channon, who was second on bars with 8.975 and Katie McDonald who placed third on floor with a 9.075.

“It wasn’t our highest scoring meet — because it was tightly scored — but it was our best meet,” Latimer said. “We hit all our vaults. Our bars were pretty clean with only minor mistakes. On floor we made some minor adjustments within the routine and then on beam took some falls but didn’t score poorly.”

Glenbard North placed second with a 137.25 behind the strong performance of sophomore Allison Wahrman, who was competing in her biggest high school meet.

Wahrman, who is in her first season with the Panthers, took home the conference all-around title with a 36.8 while also snagging top honors on bars with a 9.425, second on beam with a 9.05 and third on vault with a 9.375.

“I was really excited for her to do so well,” Panthers coach Kristin Nordquist said. “I think what sets her apart is bars. She’s so good on bars.”

While the battle for the title never came to fruition, it ended up being a tight race for third place with Naperville Central pulling it out with a 136.75, just ahead of Lake Park’s 136.725 as well as the 135.65 by Naperville North.

Jill Schubert led the Redhawks, taking second place in the all-around with a 36.15. She was also second on floor with a 9.3 while teammate Claire Savard was third on beam with an 8.875.

“We didn’t do as well as I thought we would,” Redhawks coach Glen Reimers said. “Now we’ll look toward next week and we’re going in there to win.”

Naperville North’s Erika Climo won floor with a 9.375 to pace the Huskies, who didn’t perform as well as expected either. Anneli Kawaoka was third in the all-around with a 35.95 and won beam with a 9.15 and Michaela Robert was third on bars with an 8.875.

“We struggled on some events and really had to eat some scores that were uncharacteristic for us,” Huskies coach Chris Stanicek said. “We hadn’t scored like tonight since the beginning of the year so we struggled a bit, and now we’ll refocus for the state tournament.”