Batavia's McGee leads Fox Valley area contingent to state
Megan McGee broke her femur over the summer.
On Thursday she was feeling awfully good.
The Batavia senior was one of four girls from the Fox Valley area to advance to the state finals out of Thursday's last girls gymnastics sectional at Glenbard West.
St. Charles co-op sophomores Emma Grace Redmond-Mattucci and Grace Levita also advanced.
McGee scored a 9.275 on floor to place seventh so she didn't earn an automatic qualifier. Since it was the final sectional, coaches were frantically checking scores from earlier in the week to see if any of their gymnasts who were on the borderline earned another week of practice.
One of those coaches was Batavia's Taryn Boyce, who was able to share the good news with McGee.
"It's weird to think that I'm kind of done now, but I have one more meet," McGee said. "It's incredible. I'm pretty proud of myself and the girls out there did well today. It was good. I'm looking forward to competing one last time."
Redmond-Mattucci finished third in the all-around with a 37.3 to extend her season. She also qualified on vault with a 9.425, bars with a 9.275 and floor with a 9.3 while Levita earned an at-large berth on bars with a 9.15.
The two helped St. Charles co-op score a season high 141.825 but it only left it situated in fourth place. DeKalb/Sycamore co-op won with a 147.525 and was followed by Glenbard West's 146.175 and Lake Park's 144.35. All three of those schools qualified for state as the Lancers were the final at-large qualifier.
"I mean, I think we could gone 144," St. Charles co-op coach Amy Wojdelko said. "We just had some unfortunate mishaps, but it is what it is."
Finally, U-46 co-op's Ashley McKee tied for fourth on beam with an 8.925 so the junior will be making the trek to Palatine as well as her squad's lone representative.
Despite being decimated by injuries, Geneva was well represented with six gymnasts competing, including senior Samantha DelGuidice who made the jump from the JV squad, scoring an 8.7 on floor.
"She really did a great job," Vikings coach Kim Hostman said. "It was a good experience for all the girls. I was happy with their performance."