Girls gymnastics: Glenbard West shows it's ready to roll

Maddie Diab has been showing the state how she rolls since her freshman year.

Now a junior, Diab is teaching her younger Glenbard West teammates all about high school gymnastics. They hope the team will ultimately roll into Palatine in February and bring home a team trophy.

On Friday the Hilltoppers made quite the statement at the Oswego Tumble for the Troops Invitational, winning with 146.7 points. DeKalb/Sycamore co-op, which has been the state runner-up the past two seasons, was second with a 144.45. Wheaton co-op was third with a 142.425.

"We have six new girls, which is kind of a lot, but also exciting," Diab said. "It's definitely different, but we're excited. I was used to always being the youngest and then this year I'm one of the older ones and I'm kind of showing the younger ones how things roll."

Diab rolled to the all-around title with a 37.825. She also won bars. Fellow Hilltopper Taylor Ramirez finished third in the all-around with a 37.25 and was the invite's top scorer on floor. Anna Diab finished with a 34.875 and Maia Lee and Katherine Hoban both contributed to Glenbard West's score.

"It's kind of the same old same old of what we do at Glenbard West," Hilltoppers coach Carlos Fuentes said. "We're clean and consistent and we hit. We have a little more talent than past years, but the program is still the same and the goal is the same, which is to hit as many routines as you can and to do well."

A busy week with the holidays approaching and finals during the week didn't seem to affect the Hilltoppers.

"The girls are looking good and feeling good," Fuentes said. "We're trying to get everyone healthy and it was finals week, but they weren't fazed by it. They're resilient and are focused on their goals this year."

Wheaton Warrenville co-op used a total team effort to claim third place as eight gymnasts helped the team's score.

"At this meet you never know and we were a little rusty," Wheaton Warrenville co-op coach Maureen Kermend said. "We also were working on the lineup and we had a girl out (freshman Emily Burnham), but I was happy with them. They're learning to fight more and more."

Jamie LaBue led the way for Wheaton Warrenville co-op, placing fourth in the all-around with a 36.95 while Maura Clark, Caroline Gillis, Jill Horvatin, Bridget Kennedy, Jackie Kerth, Maggie O'Hara and Macy Smykal all contributed.

"We've gotten better the last couple meets and we do better here than in the duals and triangles," LaBue said. "The more intensity of these varsity invites seems to get to us to come together as a team and it feels really good to come into a meet like this and get third as a team."

Glenbard East took fourth place with a 141.8. Kali Kartheiser led the Rams in the all-around with a 36.575.

"We had a great meet, we hit all our routines and we added some skills and we have more to add," Rams coach Jessica Bugajsky said. "Kelsey (Donovan) is only back on two events because of an injury so she'll hopefully be back as an all-arounder soon and then it's just keeping on hitting our routines and hopefully scoring a little higher."

Kelly Zehnder took second place on beam to help Lake Park place fifth with a 139.1.

Geneva scored a 135.725 and Batavia had a 130.65.

Grace De Vita was the lone all-arounder for the Vikings and took 15th place with a 33.0.

Taylor Novotny tied for seventh place on vault with a 9.3 for the Bulldogs while Kaitlyn Spears led the team in the all-around with a 32.075.