Burke, Fremd steal the show

Monday night's first sectional of the week, hosted by Schaumburg, was all about the gymnasts.

So let's let them tell what happened to themselves and their teams.

Start with Fremd's Mary Burke.

The senior did what she did at the Mid-Suburban Conference meet and regionals.

Burke went 4-for-4 and helped her team to a score of 149.45 to automatically qualify the defending champion Vikings to state.

In the six team field, Palatine (145) was second, Conant (139.075) third, Prospect (136.7) fourth, Lake Park (134.75) fifth and Hersey (30.925 sixth).

"I think we were ready just because it was the final meet before state," Burke said. "Everyone sees what scores there will be because these are state meet judges."

As for her own performance, Burke said, "I was happy with my vault (a Yerchenko layout). My beam was pretty solid."

Teammate Tori Sarantakis was second in the all-around and automatically qualified in every event except floor.

"I've been doing the same vault (Yerchenko Layout) that I've used all year," Sarantakis said. "We're trying to slowly but surely get our confidence up."

Another Viking, Caitlin Golota, advanced on vault and bars.

"I was a little shaky, but I had a lot of adrenaline," Golota said. "I was sick during practice last week so I was just working through all that."

"We had a nice finish on bars," said Fremd coach Jim Guest. "We've been real low on vault all season. We left a few points on beam, but overall, I'm happy."

Geographic neighbor Palatine also sent some gymnasts to state.

"Vault has always been one of my best events," said Palatine gymnast Morgan Bauer, who qualified in everything but bars. "I do what I can do to help the team score. I'm really excited about beam. It's the first one I stuck all year."

Bauer will be joined by Rachel Corcoran, who is still battling through an injured ankle.

"I kind of knew I was going to do that," Corcoran said of her expression of pain after both vaults, which she qualified on along with beam and floor. That's all I went for today, to do our best."

Another important component to Palatine's second-place score of 145.1 was Sam Saltess.

"This was my best meet ever," said Saltess, who also advanced on beam and floor. "We had a really positive attitude and told ourselves we knew we could do it."

"We finished second, but 145 is a good score," said Palatine coach Terry Theobald. "We had a rough start on bars. Then I pulled out the 'easy button' on beam. We all pulled together on bars."

After scoring 139.075, Conant will have a long wait to see if it is one of the eight teams at state on an at-large basis.

The Cougars' top all-arounder, Cara Cosentino, wasn't disappointed about the results.

"I knew if I didn't hit the last event...I had a lot more confidence on beam because I knew I wouldn't come back."