Neuqua Valley answers Geneva's challenge

Averaging better than 143 points in its past five meets, Neuqua Valley was the clear-cut favorite in Monday's Geneva gymnastics regional.

But sometimes a challenger comes along to try to the ruin the favorite's day.

The host Vikings nearly pulled off the upset, but the Wildcats survived the scare, edging Geneva, 140.425-139.125. Glenbard South followed in third place with a 127.975 and Naperville Central finished with a 122.375.

"It was a little bit scary," said Neuqua Valley coach Christine Clark. "Overall we made it and move on to the next step (sectional), and that's all that matters."

Neuqua Valley led Geneva by 1.75 points midway through the meet but struggled on the balance beam. The Wildcats had to count a couple of falls but also received a boost from Riley Wypiszenski, who was first to go for the Wildcats and took fourth place with an 8.725.

"It's definitely always nerve-wracking going first, but I like it because I can give the team a good start, and if I do badly, the rest of the team can take over," Wypiszenski said. "Fortunately I've been sticking it a lot lately."

Geneva was able to make up only a little ground on the beam even behind Kaitlyn Kanarowski and Emily Ott going 1-2 with a 9.05 and 8.975.

Neuqua Valley pulled ahead for good when it edged the Vikings 35.475-35.325 in the floor exercise.

For the Wildcats, Catherine Miller tied for top honors on the bars with a 9.0 which helped propel her to the all-around title with a 35.875. Morgan Knight edged teammate Ashley Nelson for the vault title and Bryn Walsh, who missed last Friday's Upstate Eight Conference Meet due to an injury, bounced back with a third-place finish on bars with an 8.7.

"It was kind of nervous because (Geneva) was hosting," Miller said. "We thought we had it in the bag until the whole beam thing but we picked it up on floor and that brought us through."

After competing 6 times in 17 days, the Wildcats will now have 10 days to prepare for the Glenbard West sectional on Feb. 11

Geneva was led Kanarowski and Emily Ott. Kanarowski tied for first on bars, won beam with a 9.05 and placed second in the all-around. Ott took first in the floor exercise with a 9.275, took second on beam and fourth on bars. Also for the Vikings, senior Cami Pfetzer had top five finishes on beam and floor exercise. All three gymnasts qualified for the Glenbard West sectional, but are hopeful that the team can qualify as an at-large team. They'll have to wait until Saturday's final regional concludes to find out if the team's season will continue.

Neither Glenbard South nor Naperville Central had a gymnast finish in the top five in an individual event and automatically qualify for sectional action.

"It's a bittersweet ending, especially for Michelle (Kohout) and Laurel (Arlis) as seniors," said Glenbard South coach Donna Murphy. "Falling on beam kind of killed us tonight and Michelle falling, I was hoping she'd go (to sectional) on beam. We'll have to wait and see."

Kohout led the Raiders on vault, bars, beam and the all-around..

Naperville Central's injury-plagued season came to an end. Freshman Julie Bajek tied for ninth on vault and junior Carrie Deveney tied for sixth on beam with an 8.35.

"I think with all the injuries we've had and losing Caley (Faulkner), we did great," said Naperville Central coach Glen Reimers. "The girls picked it up. We could've dropped below 120 and said the heck with it, but they continued to work hard, kept going and tried to do better each day."