Girls gymnastics: St. Charles working on consistency

Inconsistency is an issue for most gymnastics teams.

St. Charles co-op might be extremely talented but it's not invulnerable to unpredictability and such was uncovered during Wednesday's quadrangular in St. Charles.

DeKalb/Sycamore co-op edged St. Charles co-op, 143 to 141.4 for first place while Riverside-Brookfield was a distant third with a 128.1 and U-46 co-op was fourth with a 118.7.

"We had our best vault of the season so we looked encouraging," St. Charles co-op coach Tom Wirth said. "But beam was a disaster. Last week we were able to throw away a 9.1 and today we didn't even get a 9.1"

Talent isn't a concern for St. Charles co-op. The team has proved that it's among the top teams in the state. It did it again on Wednesday despite major struggles on beam as well as on bars and floor.

"Our last meet we went 143 and bombed two events and tonight we kind of bombed three," Wirth said. "So that's was a little discouraging, but we still had our second highest score of the season despite the unusual mishaps on bars and floor."

It's those errors though that left the team looking up at DeKalb/Sycamore.

"They are totally within our range, but we've got to try to fix the little things," Wirth said. "It's nothing major but they're the kind of things you have to put together for the second half of the season if you really want to get to state and make a run at it."

Senior Emma Grace Redmond-Mattucci led St. Charles, finishing second in the all-around with a 36.45. Freshman teammate Alivia Silvestri added a 34.7.

"We're only halfway there and haven't come anywhere to hitting our peak," Redmond-Mattucci said. "I'm trying to keep it consistent because consistency is key at this point in gymnastics and I'm trying to ride out my senior year hitting 4-for-4. If that doesn't happen then I just go back to practice, get a clean slate and try again in the next meet."

Redmond-Mattucci said competing with a freshman-heavy lineup can be challenging as the group has made the transition from club all the way to high school varsity.

"They are still getting out the nerves," she said. "I know it's a little late in the game to make that as an explanation, but it's true because I remember learning that harshly when I was a freshman and now I'm fine."

Silvestri, Sydney Kamin, Blakely Kresl and Izzy DesRoches all contributed to the team's score and all are freshmen.

"We have a lot of depth now that's locked into varsity," Redmond-Mattucci said. "Now they need to hold it together because they have to realize it's not club, but a team."

Taegan Vinarsky led U-46 co-op with a 30.05 in the all-around, edging teammates Gianna Murkowski (29.05), Frances Kuzyk (28.7) and Kim Garcia (28.6).

"I think we definitely have improved from our last meet," Vinarsky said. "We had a few falls but our form was really strong."

With new coach Jessica Stoye getting hired late and losing several key scorers from last season, the team had has to rebuild and get to know each other. The process has been gradual.

"We missed a lot at the start of the season so we were behind, but we're starting to get to know each other better so hopefully our scores will go up," Vinarsky said. "I know we've already improved from when we started."