Hilltoppers follow through on plan
Things should be quite interesting next Monday in Glen Ellyn.
Two days after Glenbard North tied its school-best score of 148.775 to win its own regional, Glenbard West set a new school record of its own, pulling off a 146.525 to win the Glenbard West regional on Wednesday night in Glen Ellyn.
The two highest-scoring teams in the Glenbard West sectional now await the results of tonight's Oswego sectional to see who else they will battle for an opportunity to qualify for the state finals.
"They've (Glenbard North) known all year that we've been on their tail," Glenbard West coach Carlos Fuentes said. "Now we look forward to the challenge of having them here. We really pushed to have home-field advantage, to host this sectional, and we have it set up just like we want it: at home, in the sectional, us against Glenbard North, and it'll be very fun."
After missing half of last season with an injury, Glenbard West's Becky Mladucky continued her strong season, winning bars, beam and floor exercise to win the all-around title going away with a 37.325. Geneva freshman Kaitlyn Kanarowski posted the second highest all-around total but finished with a distant 35.950.
"We've all been working really hard trying to perfect our routines," Mladucky said. "We usually won't leave practice until we get it right, and we all know we have to put in a lot to get a lot out."
Just like the effort Mladucky put in during the off-season as she recovered from a heel injury.
"She had an all-around high tonight," Fuentes said. "It was nice to see all of that hard work pay off."
The Hilltoppers benefited from contributions up and down their lineup. Sarah Udelhofen won the vault with a 9.4, while Shannon Dietz took second on bars, Missy Guzman finished second on beam, Megan Brennan was second in the floor exercise and Kinnari Badger placed third on vault.
While the Hilltoppers have punched their ticket to compete in a sectional, the South Elgin/Bartlett/Streamwood co-op will be doing a little scoreboard watching, well, at least visiting the IHSA Web site late tonight to check the results of the Oswego regional.
South Elgin should be safe. While two of the teams in the Oswego regional have scored better than a 138.850 earlier this year, neither Oswego co-op or Glenbard East have scored better than a 133.8 and three of the four teams in tonight's regional would need to score better than a 138.850 to eliminate South Elgin.
"We think we have a very good shot of making it," South Elgin coach Amy August said. "We didn't have the perfect meet, but as a team we continue to improve and you can't ask for anything more than that."
Taeopae Wetterman took fifth in the all-around and on bars while teammate Emily Potts posted the third best all-around total and had top five finishes in all but the floor exercise.
"I was just happy to see us come together as a team and put up our best effort," Potts said. "We've been trying to get better every time out."
Third-place Geneva was aiming to reach 135 but came up just short with a 134.850.
"I was really happy for the girls," Geneva coach Kim Hostman said. "The goal was 135 coming in and we barely missed that. I'm excited that a few of them got through (to sectional) and hoping to get a few more."
In addition to her second-place finish in the all-around, Kanarowski finished third on bars and fourth on beam for the Vikings, while specialist Emily Ott reached a new personal high with a 9.225 floor exercise that boosted her to third place.
Glenbard South closed the regional with a 128.150. The Raiders' top finish came from junior Michelle Kohout's ninth-place vault of 8.725.