Corcoran leads Palatine victory

You can count on one hand the number of gymnasts who can do what Palatine's Rachel Corcoran did during Wednesday's regional meet hosted by the Pirates.

During practice on Tuesday, the senior did a punch-front and injured her ankle. All Corcoran did yesterday was win vault (9.45), bars (9.3) -- the only nine in that event -- floor (9.45) and the all-around (36.4) to lead Palatine to first place with 142.675.

That means that the Pirates automatically advanced to next Monday's Schaumburg sectional.

"I really just wanted to get through it and do as well as I can," Corcoran said. "I watered down a few things."

Corcoran hopes to be back to 100 percent by next week.

"I'm going to get my regional routines back by sectionals," she said.

"We weren't on," said Palatine coach Terry Theobald. "We had a couple of nagging injuries. We tried a couple of new Tsuks (on vault). That was OK."

"Emilie (Piasecki) and Nicole (Barba) have been working on new tricks on beam. Tonight they both made it," said Palatine senior Morgan Bauer, who was looking forward to this meet. "We like to challenge ourselves. We had a real rocky conference meet. Our motto after conference was, it's a new season. We just went out and gave it all we had."

Bauer placed second (9.375) on floor. It was only the second time she had competed that routine.

Elk Grove, which came in second (131.625), had a strong middle of the meet.

"This was our best beam and bars ever," said Grenadiers coach Heather DeCook. "We had one fall (on beam) out of ten kids."

Elk Grove's Kim Gulik took second on vault (9.375), bars (8.95) and beam (8.525), 10th on floor (8.45) and fourth in the all-around (35.225).

"It was an all right meet but not my best," Gulik said. "Bars were a little sloppy, but I qualified and that's what matters.

"My front full, I added that in the last two meets. I can do it in practice, but I can't seem to land it in meets. I also had three new skills on bars."