St. Charles co-op cruises past Batavia
St. Charles co-op may constantly practice at the St. Charles Gymnastics Academy, but it only gets a chance to compete there once per season.
That made Wednesday's dual meet against Batavia especially memorable for the team's seniors, including Dani Buoy who wrapped up the meet for the hosts by scoring a 9.1 on floor to help the co-op cruise past the Bulldogs, 138.9 to 131.15.
Winning this meet doesn't mean much of anything though. For one, St. Charles wasn't at full strength so it wasn't able to attempt to reach a particular team score to gauge what it's capable of doing in the postseason. Secondly, its gymnasts have ambitious plans for the postseason so a weekday dual meet isn't much more than a decorated practice or exhibition. The date to note is Feb. 2 for the Geneva regional, which should be a fantastic battle between the two programs.
Still, this meet gave the team a chance to show what it can do in front of a home crowd.
"This is always a favorite meet and typically the one where they shine and put it all together," St. Charles coach Amy Wojdelko said. "Tonight we didn't pull it together on beam, but we're not at full strength right now either, so I'm getting a little bit nervous since we're getting toward the end (of the season)."
Senior Devon Ross and sophomore Mychaela Guy didn't compete due to injuries, but Wojdelko expects them to return for the regional.
"I'm not so worried about (conference) next week," she said. "We should be full strength by regional so that's the plan."
Emma Grace Redmond-Mattucci led the co-op, winning vault, bars and floor, as well as the all-around with a 36.25. Fellow sophomore Grace Levita was right behind her with a 35.75 while Buoy was third with a 34.750. The team counted all its scores toward its total, along with contributions on vault and beam from Sam Upshaw and bars and floor from freshman Lauren Carne.
"It was nice to be able to go out on floor to finish," Buoy said. "I think we did pretty well for who we had. We made some mistakes, especially on beam, but for the most part with the other events we did what we needed to do."
Senior Courtney Kellenberger competed on two events and is now beginning to realize that the end of her career is near.
"I remember how scary it was when I had my first meet as a freshman and now I'm a senior and being asked to inspire the younger underclassmen said," she said "It's gone by so fast."
Batavia, which has a triangular at Oswego on Friday, along with conference to prepare itself for the Glenbard West regional on Feb. 3, continues to clean up its performances.
"We're done changing things right now," Bulldogs coach Taryn Boyce said. "We're going to stay consistent and I think they're there, they just need to stop falling, that's it. I'm ready, they're ready."
Batavia senior Megan McGee, who recovered from a broke femur she suffered last summer, amazingly has returned to form. She placed third on vault as her pike netted a 9.1.
"I've been working on getting back," she said. "My normal skills have come back quicker than I expected, which was good."
The Bulldogs had nine different gymnasts see action. Freshman Lillian Baty-Barr was their lone all-arounder with a 31.250 and just one of two underclassmen to compete.
Their other top scores included an 8.7 on floor from Jamie-Ann Clark, an 8.6 on vault from McKenna Sloan and an 8.3 from Lauren Stangl on beam, which also earned her third place.