Nervously, Fremd wins season opener
Jitters.
Those inexplicable, undefined entities that somehow work their way into an athlete's psyche early each and every season.
They happened to both Fremd and the visiting Buffalo Grove gymnastics teams in Tuesday night's season opener.
Despite heavy losses to graduation and a concussion suffered by returnee Tori Sarantakis during warm-ups that kept her out of the meet, Fremd defeat the Bison 143.95-127.65 Tuesday. The Vikings also outscored Bartlett/South Elgin, which finished with 128.85 points.
"For a first meet, we got the first meet jitters out," said Fremd coach Jim Guest, whose team has a different look than the one that mildly surprised the gymnastics community by winning the state championship last season. "I'm happy that we went out and competed."
"We were just rusty for our first meet," said Buffalo Grove coach Stephanie Schrader, who had a baby girl four weeks ago.
Fremd has three freshmen on varsity this season. They helped lead their team to a score of 37.4 on vault, 35.0 on bars, 34.75 on beam and 36.35 on floor.
Leading the way was defending state all-around champion Mary Burke. The senior tied for second with teammate Eliza Grosshauser on vault (9.2). Fremd's Nicole Thiel won that event (9.45).
Burke also won bars (9.6), vault (9.35), floor (9.8) and the all-around (38.45).
"It was our first meet so it was just getting back in the groove, seeing what I need to change," Burke said. "I have a couple of new things. Floor is a little different. I do a double pike (in my first pass) instead of a (tucked) double. That's basically it."
Linda Dunne won vault (9.2), bars (8.9), beam (8.8) and the all-around (35.15) for the Bison, with Christine Douthwaite leading the team on floor (9.45).
"We were not at full strength," Schrader said. "Nikki Villamin has a foot injury and only did two events. (All-arounder) Christine Douthwaite just came back from diving (at the state meet) and has had only five practices and an intersquad."
But it wasn't all gloomy for the Bison.
"We improved on bars from what I saw in practice," Schrader said. "Linda added some things on bars. Reiko (Akiyoshi) had a great meet. She did the all-around for the first time."
Fenwick 65, St. Viator 35: Sophomore Kaitlyn Payne (17 points), sophomore Tricia Liston (11) and junior Colleen Forklin (10) led the state's No. 5 ranked Friars (5-1) past the visiting Lions (1-4) in the East Suburban Catholic Conference.