Falcons edge Tigers for second at Best

Thanks to Friday's snow day, Batavia senior gymnast Rachel Besic could've slept in and lounged around the house all day. Instead, she elected to spend more than two voluntary hours of practice at Excel Gymnastics working on her routines.

Pushing out from beneath her covers and into her leotard on Friday paid huge dividends for Besic and the Bulldogs on Saturday. She won the all-around title and Batavia prevailed in the 10-team Illinois Best Invitational at Wheaton Warrenville South.

"I had one fall on beam and that was it," Besic said. "I did a double full on a floor and a new dismount on bars. Both were new for me this season, so it was very good to try new things and solidify them before our bigger meets."

Teams had a single gymnast compete in the all-around for top honors and one additional gymnast competing in each of the four events for the top score. Batavia won decisively with a total of 71.450 while Wheaton North edged the hosts 67.30-67.025 to capture second place.

Batavia's single-event competitors didn't make it look difficult. Danae Fuqua was second on bars and Emma Gear won floor. Becca Thone defended her beam title with an 8.85, besting her 8.7 from last December.

"We're starting to see the confidence that's needed," Batavia coach Taryn Boyce said. "We've had some rocky starts with falls this season, but they're getting into the right mode of competing and today it could've been hard for them to warm up, sit for two hours and then compete."

Freshman Angie Cronk led Wheaton North, shining as its all-arounder, taking second place with a 34.775. She scored an afternoon-best 8.925 on beam.

"Coming in we knew it was going to be a three-team push with us and Glenbard West and Batavia," Wheaton co-op coach Lee Wood said. "We got off to an OK start on vault and bars, and then even on beam the score was low but the high (of the meet), but having two or three falls on floor that does do it to you, but still I thought it was a very good meet."

Wheaton Warrenville South senior Cassidy Peterson sustained an ankle injury last year just prior to this annual invite. On Saturday she competed in all four events for the first time since early 2007, finishing in sixth place.

"I was really scared that I wouldn't be able to compete again," she said. "I'm really happy it worked out and I feel pretty good with how I did."

Emily Schwartz tied for second on the beam and Elizabeth Ciesielki took second place on the floor for the Tigers.

Glenbard West had to count an injury-induced 2.0 as one of its floor scores, and that dropped the Hilltoppers to ninth place. Becky Mladucky won bars and Shannon Dietz took second on vault.

"You've got to make all eight routines count," Glenbard West coach Carlos Fuentes said. "Unfortunately we had to count the floor, but the girls had fun today and since they've been over 140 the last couple meets there's a lot more to focus on."

Glenbard East took fifth place while an injury-plagued Waubonsie Valley squad tied Glenbard South for sixth place.