Zehnder, Lake Park get comfortable

Kelly Zehnder recalls her first gymnastics meet as a freshman at Lake Park.

"It was all right, but much different than today," the Lancers senior said. "There's definitely been some improvement since then, which is good."

Zehnder won three events and the all-around with a 36.7 as Lake Park rolled past Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley co-op 141.675 to 128.675 in Wednesday's DuPage Valley Conference dual meet.

"Emotionally, that first meet was a different kind of nervous because it was all new to me and I had never competed here at Lake Park," she said. "Today I'm kind of used to it and I can focus more on nervousness in doing my routines rather than from everyone being around."

The Lancers have advanced to state the past two seasons, and while a third consecutive trip is possible, it'll be a huge challenge. Still, don't count out Zehnder and the Lancers, who celebrated Senior Night on Wednesday.

"I'm trying to be a leader on the team, and that's how it's always been here with leaders and everyone cheering each other on," she said. "None of that has changed. It's been like that from freshman year to senior year."

Fellow Lake Park senior Chloe Capuder was the only gymnast that got in the way of Zehnder winning all four events as she edged her teammate 9.1 to 9.0 on bars.

"It was kind of a new routine, actually," Capuder said. "It was really nice being a senior to have them here to cheer me on knowing it wasn't my last meet, but almost my last meet, so it felt really good to hit."

Capuder displayed her most emotion early in the evening when she had a chance to share some words with her teammates.

"It was emotional there, and I was happy to be able to do that with my team," she said. "Overall, it's been a good experience for me to be on a team every year. I think it's good when you're in high school, especially being able to do what you love. So it's been a great four years here and there's still more ahead."

Julia Naronowicz contributed team scores on three events, Maggie Koch and Julia Kurek were big on bars and vault, Andie Granskog also added a score on vault, as did Racquel Suhr and Aleks Gierasimiuk on floor for the Lancers.

It wasn't as eventful of a night for the visitors, who are still targeting a goal of a 130 or higher score.

"One hundred twenty-nine point eight is the team high, so we're still pushing to get that 130," co-op coach Phil Gilmer said. "I got them together and showed them that they're capable of scoring well above 130. They just have got to fight through it and believe in themselves."

Thalia Bowen tied for third place overall on vault and had the team's top score on bars with a 7.8. Her sister Thera Brown led the team on floor with an 8.45 and Jessica Houghton had a team-best 8.775 on beam.

Melissa Martin, who made a miraculous, and undeniably lucky, save on beam, was awarded an 8.575, which helped her score a 32.335 as the team's lone all-arounder.

"I think they all did really well," Gilmer said. "I think we had a rough start, but they picked each other up and came together as a team. I still think we're not scoring where we need to be, but we have a couple weeks to work out the kinks and we'll hopefully be peaking at conference, which is what I want."