Geneva aims for 140 at sectionals
Evidently there is something to having a home-gym advantage.
Geneva hosted its first gymnastics regional on Monday, and the Vikings girls capitalized with a performance that vaulted them to sectionals for the first time in eight years as a sanctioned team.
"One of my goals for high school was to get the high school team going," said Geneva girls gymnastics coach Kim Hostman, whose long tenure includes many years when Geneva was a club team or was comprised solely of individuals.
"It's been probably 20 years since they took the first individuals (downstate, Ricki Volts, Angela Chalberg, Peggy Caine)," she said. "It was really exciting when they added on to the school that they added a gymnastics room to the high school, and therefore they were able to sanction a gymnastics team."
And therefore girls such as Emily Ott, Kaitlyn Kanarowski, Cami Pfetzer, Blythe Boyle, Sadie Danko, sophomore Alexis Graham, junior Erin Kluck, freshmen Delaney Wood and Jenna Ginsberg and Alicia Hostman, the coach's daughter, get another chance to show their stuff at Thursday's Glenbard West sectional.
"It's been a very impressive year from start to finish," said Geneva athletic director Jim Kafer, who was instrumental in getting the program sanctioned. "The fact that they qualified for sectionals demonstrates that it's truly a team and not just one or two star individuals - though they do have that, too."
All-around stars Ott and Kanarowski - a junior and sophomore, respectively - Wood and Pfetzer, Geneva's only senior among its top gymnasts, all will compete individually at Glenbard West. Kanarowski and Ott are ranked eighth and 10th, respectively, among the 32 all-arounders.
The team, which placed second to Neuqua Valley at regionals, advanced as an at-large qualifier.
After setting three school records this season - Geneva's top mark was 139.495 points at Neuqua Valley on Jan. 18 - coach Hostman hopes a fourth comes Thursday.
"We're going in healthy, and we've added a couple of things to try to get a couple tenths out of our four-five kids," she said. "Our goal going in - and our goal all year - is to hit a 140 or above."
Geneva will be an underdog in its quest to land one of the eight team berths at the state meet, Feb. 19-20 at Palatine. The Vikings' regional point total ranks fifth of the six team qualifiers at Glenbard West.
Perhaps the history-making mojo will continue.
"It's been really exciting to work with these girls," Hostman said. "I've been proud to be their coach, and I look forward to seeing hopefully a lot of them progress on to state."
College achieversWe have a no-repeat rule for our player of the week honors in football, basketball, softball and such. But this column has no such rule when highlighting worthy local graduates.So, while we previously reported that Kaneland's Lyndsie Long was named College Conference of Illinois Wisconsin women's basketball player of the week, we'll do so again. Actually, the Elmhurst College senior forward won the honor on Jan. 25 for a third time this season. She had successive games of 25 and 33 points, the latter tying her career high - until she shattered that with 45 points Wednesday in an 85-84 loss to Carthage. Soon enough she should earn a third straight unanimous first-team all-CCIW selection.St. Charles North graduate Mary Pat Holtrop, a sophomore at Augustana, was voted the defensive MVP of the 20-2-1 Vikings' women's soccer team. Playing left back, she was part of a unit that allowed 12 goals in 23 matches, with 14 shutouts and a goals-against of 0.50. At Millikin, St. Charles East graduate Janelle Nickel earned her fourth letter in women's golf. And Augustana junior Matt Bowman, from Geneva via Elburn, has been voted as a captain for Augie's 2010 cross country team.Wrapping up, another Kaneland graduate, Lyndsey Gruenke, was just named the Midwest Conference women's track performer of the week. The Carroll University sophomore bested 56 other competitors in the 200-meter dash at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point's Pointer Invitational, winning in a school-record time of 26.05 seconds.Dusty from downtownYes, he's from Knightstown, Ind. But Dusty Magee can shoot the 3-ball like no other Aurora University man ever has.On the third of his nine 3-pointers in an 84-57 win over Marian University on Jan. 30, the 5-foot-8 senior guard eclipsed 2005 graduate Adam McCoy as the Spartans' all-time leader in 3-pointers made. Entering Wednesday's game against Concordia, Magee had made 255 treys in 700 attempts.