Glenbard West's Diab adds two titles, Glenbard North's Wahrman second on bars
Three area seniors had an opportunity to compete one final time, but once again it was a freshman who stole the show.
Glenbard West's Maddie Diab, who won the all-around title during Friday's IHSA all-around finals and individual event preliminaries, decided she was far from finished.
A night after becoming just the fourth DuPage County girl to win an all-around title, and the first in 22 years, Diab added a pair of individual titles.
Her start was nothing short of amazing. She took top honors with her Kasamatsu (tuck tsuk full) on vault, which netted a 9.9.
"I was so happy that I stuck it and then I went back and stuck it again," she said. "It just feels very good to know that I have my vault down and can stick it like that twice in a row."
After scoring a 9.375 to take seventh place on bars, Diab turned her full attention to beam.
"When I had the first practice ever with her, and I would never say this to her, but at that time, I said, 'If this kid is ever going to be a state champion it's going to be on beam,'" Hilltoppers coach Carlos Fuentes said. "And I've had some good beam workers. Someone like Amber (Broucek) is a four-time state qualifier. And you have to give credit to Sarah DeStefano, who is her beam partner in practice."
Diab scored a 9.325 on beam in prelims, but she cleaned up her routine, scoring a 9.525 to bring home another title.
"I never thought I'd be beam and vault champion," Diab said. "I didn't think any of that was possible for me."
Diab finished her night with a 9.125 on floor to take eighth place.
Her two winning scores lifted Glenbard West's team total to 146.1 and the Hilltoppers officially secured fourth place.
"It was a historic season in many ways," Fuentes said. "The highest team finish, and individually for the girls qualifying all the way through here, and then obviously for Maddie."
Glenbard North's Allison Wahrman had hoped to bring back the bars title to Carol Stream (Amanda Quinn did it in 2012) and she did everything she could to make it happen, improving her score from Friday's 9.5 to a 9.525.
Prairie Ridge co-op's Nikka Baars just ended up being better with a 9.575 to win the title, so Wahrman settled for second place.
"It means a lot to me," Wahrman said. "I had qualified before but never placed so to do it during my last meet is special."
Lake Park senior Izzy Shaw has torn her ACL twice in the past few years so if anyone deserved a chance to compete in two of the individual event finals, it was Shaw, the lone Lancers rep.
Shaw took seventh on vault with a 9.525 and ninth on floor with a 9.0.
"I had no idea what I was going to be able to do this year with what has happened to me in the past," she said. "The fact that I'm here just makes me very happy. Gymnastics has been in my life so long and this team means so much to mean. It's going to be really sad that it's now over."
The Lancers remained with 144.425 points and in fifth place.
Finally, Hinsdale South senior Maddie Nowak capped her brilliant time on varsity by getting called to the awards stand three times.
She took second on beam with a 9.45, tied for third on bars with a 9.475 and placed fourth on vault with a 9.725. The only event she didn't hit was floor where she was 10th with an 8.625.
Downers Grove South freshman Abby Carlson injured herself in warmups and missed an opportunity to complete in the bars finals.
The Mustangs finished in eighth place as a team with a 143.125.