Girls gymnastics: Topa, Lake Zurich rewarded with a win
A lot of presents are wrapped up in time for the holidays. For Lake Zurich, its new girls gymnastics team is the gift that keeps giving.
And Joanna Topa keeps delivering in a big way for the Bears, who won Wednesday night's nonconference triangular at Vernon Hills. Lake Zurich chalked up a 133.1 to best Libertyville (128.5) and host Vernon Hills (126.4).
Topa captured the top spots on uneven bars (9.00) and floor exercise (8.95) en route to winning the all-around (33.9).
"I was kind of nervous, at first, on the bars," Topa said. "But once I got up there, I wasn't nervous at all. After I did my pirouette move, I muscled it up and tried to keep it going. I was able to push it through and stick the landing. The rest of the team was cheering me through it and really supported me."
The sophomore continues to try to perfect her bars routine, despite dealing with sickness the last week.
"It's all about getting better and working at it," Topa said.
The Bears are trying to figure out where they stand at the midpoint of the season. They've steadily shown signs of improvement.
"We put in a lot of new skills in this meet," said Lake Zurich coach Chelsie Seplowin, who saw her girls go 5-for-5 on beam. "We had some falls with the new skills, but we're trying to get seasoned so when January hits, we're ready to go. We also switched our lineup a bit. We know the scores will come. All we can control is our gymnastics."
Lake Zurich's Ellie Root chalked up second place on bars with an 8.75. Teagan Jones of Lake Zurich shared first place with Libertyville's Claire Neuberger and Vernon Hills' Avery Longdon on vault, as each earned an 8.6.
Lake Zurich's Emily McGuckin was first on beam (8.25), and Emilia Mangiardi placed third on floor (8.5). Root was also second in the all-around (33.45).
Longdon returned after missing a meet. She hyperextended her left elbow on the floor a couple of weeks ago. She had a good vault Wednesday and tried to follow up with good routines on the other events.
"I was happy with my vault," Longdon said. "This meet wasn't my best because of the elbow injury. I haven't been able to practice that hard, so I really didn't do my best in this meet. I hope I can heal up more and improve by the next meet."
The sophomore reached the sectional last year as a freshman. She worked hard in the offseason and made the sectional in diving this past fall.
Caitlin Kolb of Vernon Hills placed third on bars (8.45), and the Cougars' Dylan Sides tied for second with Libertyville's Maddie Swanson on the beam (8.1).
Swanson also finished second on floor (8.7) and took third in the all-around (32.95).