Worth the wait for Carmel's Basara
Being the last gymnast could be a long waiting process, but it was well worth the wait for Carmel Catholic's Lyndsey Basara.
Basara had no clue what score she needed as the final gymnast on the floor exercise on Saturday at the girls state gymnastics meet at Palatine High School.
Basara performed to the best of her ability in the moment and posted a 9.55, which was good for third place.
Her score was better than in the preliminary by .10 and it helped put the Corsairs in a tie with DeKalb co-op for fifth place with 145.475 points.
DeKalb's Madison Hickey went right before Basara and ended up with the top score of 9.7, increasing her team's score by. 25. The Barbs went ahead of the Corsairs by the one-tenth of a point until Basara's final routine.
"Going last, you're always nervous but I knew what was expected from me," Basara said. "I pushed through and my teammates helped me a lot. I didn't look at the team score prior to going, so I didn't really know what was expected from me. But just to do that for my team was unreal and I was so happy for all of this."
Basara earned a fifth-place medal on vault last year and managed to move higher on the stand.
"Last year, it was a quick one-two vault and it obviously wasn't as tiring," Basara added. "I'm still kind of shaking, but it's kind of super-exciting for everybody."
Isabella Kropiwiec of Carmel finished in a fourth-place tie on vault with three others - Glenbrook South's Sheena Graham, Caleigh Pistorius of Maine South and Gracie Willis of Prairie Ridge (9.55).
Kropiwiec was able to land her Yurchenko layout, which turned out to be her first medal in the state finals. She finished seventh last year, also on vault.
"It definitely had to be one of my best vaults this season," Kropiwiec said. "I had good form and landing. I had to control my adrenaline and it's definitely something that I've always had to work on because I'm a powerful gymnast. When it comes to vault, I have to focus and go for the good landing."
Kropiwiec wasn't bothered by the other talented gymnasts that competed on vault and had plenty of focus that helped her out reaching another level.
"All of the other gymnasts in the finals are very talented," Kropiwiec added. "It was a little intimidating, but I had a good layout too. I feel that I had to focus on myself first and it helped me with my vault."
One other Corsairs gymnast in the finals, freshman Clare Keane, placed ninth on the bars with a 9.175.
Carly Trebac of Lake Zurich reached the finals for the first time and ended in 11th place on the floor (9.15) while Kristin Fisch of Lake Forest tied for ninth on the balance beam with Schaumburg's Alexis Rothmeyer (8.75) and was 10th on vault (8.85).
Maddie Diab of Glenbard West, who won the all-around on Friday, took the top spots on vault (9.8), beam (9.65) and bars (9.55) Saturday. She was the runner-up on floor (9.65).
Glenbard West won the state title for the second straight year posting a 149.025. New Trier was second (147.525) followed by Maine South (147.25) and Glenbrook South (147.15)