Patriots prove they're better
Over the last few years, the Stevenson girls gymnastics team had made its way to the state meet, but it had stayed behind both Carmel and Warren for bragging rights in Lake County.
That might be changing in the near future.
The bar has been raised once again for the Patriots, and coach Judy Harwood is contributing in another way.
Coach Harwood showed some of her excitement last Saturday in the Lake County invitational at Libertyville after Lauren Patterson's excellent floor exercise routine (9.4).
Harwood ran onto the floor in jubilation and joined a celebration with the rest of the team
"They seem to kind of like that," Harwood said. "If they keep getting good scores, then I'll have to keep it up. It's trying for me, but I'll keep it up."
Harwood had more to talk about as Stevenson chalked up its best score of the season (146.19), finishing behind Warren (147.18) but ahead of Carmel (142.86).
The Patriots eclipsed the 146 mark for the second time in as many meets.
Patterson put together one of her best routines of the season.
"If we showed off our floor routines, (Harwood) would get very excited for us," said Patterson, a sophomore. "I wanted to see what would happen, and it worked."
The Patriots followed her lead and rolled from there, posting a 36.45 on floor, second only to Warren's 37.98.
Stevenson also had solid team scores on vault (37.11), bars (36.7) and beam (35.93).
The Patriots have three experienced juniors, Shana Manning, Chelsie Seplowin and Stephanie Wojton leading the way. Now others like Carlie Dopkin, Tia Dybas, Amanda Holleb, Caitlin Pagano and Alex Kessler are also helping out.
"We've got a lot of younger girls and hopefully we can keep things together," Seplowin said. "We have pep talks all the time and we're getting to know each other."
The juniors, now in their third year of varsity action, have had higher scores lately.
"In my freshman year, we barely fell," Seplowin said. "Now we've got so much more potential and we have the skills. We can use it and we're getting there. I can see it. We just have to limit our falls."
Soaring Eagle: After a disappointing conclusion at the end of last season, Lakes' Cody Ksioszk has turned her focus on a big finish to her final year.
"This being my senior season, I want to go out with a bang," Ksioszk said. "I still need to clean up my routines right now. I definitely want to go back to state."
The state meet is something Ksioszk remembers from sophomore year. She reached the finals on balance beam and also competed on the floor exercise in the preliminaries.
However, her season ended abruptly last season. She's come out full force throughout this year and has been a top-three finisher throughout the dual meets.
"I haven't been hurt at all this year," Ksioszk said. "I'm getting my skills back. I still need to practice more, adding more skills to my routines. Floor is my strongest event and I still need to clean up my tumbling."
Ksioszk is the kind of competitor who is the last one to leave practice, according to Lakes coach Tiffany Magliola.
"She's unbelievably driven to do well this year," Magliola said. "After last year, she's really on fire and I've never seen anybody work that hard. She's working right now on consistency and adding a few things. Just a great kid with a positive attitude."
State series is fast approaching: Schools are a couple of weeks away from starting their run through regionals and sectionals in an attempt to reach the state meet at Palatine High School in February.
The regionals are set up for the Stevenson sectional, beginning at 6:30 p.m. each night. Starting on Tuesday, Jan. 29, Carmel, Lake Forest, Vernon Hills and an individual from Grayslake Central will be at New Trier.
On Thursday, Jan. 30, Stevenson will host Deerfield, Highland Park, Libertyville and individuals from McHenry and Prairie Ridge.
On Friday, Jan. 31, Lakes and Mundelein will join Buffalo Grove with individuals from Jacobs and Woodstock competing at Barrington.
The other regional as of Wednesday is to be announced, but Warren is in consideration to host it on Saturday, Feb. 1, with Glenbrook North and South, Wheeling along with an individual from Grant.
The Stevenson sectional will take place Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 6:30 p.m.