Gymnasts celebrate first-place finish

Submitted by Jane Feely

With their competitive season reaching its peak, many of the young athletes at Ultimate Gymnastics of Gurnee are hitting form and working toward their respective state competitions next month. That is certainly true of the Level 7 girls’ team, which celebrated a first-place finish and a number of outstanding individual performances at the recent BIG Dream Classic held at Lyons Township High School.

Two members of the Level 7 team broke the 38.00 mark in the all-around, collecting eight out of a possible 10 gold medals between them. In the Junior A age group, Gurnee’s Aaliyah Humphreys scored 38.025 and took top honors on all events except uneven bars where she took the silver medal. In the Senior B age group Riverwoods’ Laken Ritzert continued her strong season with a 38.10 for all-around gold. Laken was first on all events except balance beam, where she took runner-up honors. The gold medal on beam went to her Ultimate teammate Gabrielle Panlaqui, who also shared the top honors on floor and was second in the all-around.

In the Junior B age group, Ultimate girls also dominated. Sylvia Raquel won the all-around title and took gold on bars and beam while Libertyville’s Grace Miller scored on outstanding 9.90 to win the floor title. She was also runner-up on bars and in the all-around. In the Senior A age group, top honors went to Lake Forest’s Caroline Grumhaus, who won the all-around and every event except beam. Caroline shared the vault title with her teammate Jessica Pasquesi and two Ultimate girls tied for beam gold: Leah Medenwaldt and Gaby Inawat both scored 9.40.

The Level 8 and Level 6 teams from Ultimate also came away with first-place finishes at the meet. At Level 8, Grayslake’s Katie Schroeder won the all-around title in the Senior B age group and placed first on beam and second on bars and floor. Teammate Hunter Bode took the floor title. In the Senior A age group Emily Whitis placed first on both beam and floor.

At Level 6, consistency across all four events paid off for Gurnee’s Lyndsey Basara (Junior A) on her way to a gold medal in the all-around while Emily Isabelli was first on beam and Olivia Roebuck took top honors on vault. In the Junior B group, Sabrina Panlaqui won the all-around title and gold on uneven bars while Aly Weihs scored an outstanding 9.75 to win beam. In the Senior age group Kylie Skie placed first on floor and in the all-around.

At Level 10, Emily Basara won floor gold with 9.60 and was runner up in the all-around while at Level 9 Bailee Hardy — a specialist on uneven bars — also qualified for her state meet on floor exercise.

Meanwhile the youngest gymnasts also had success to celebrate. At Level 5 Lain Montoya was first on floor and third on beam and in the all-around in the Child age group. There were medals too for Kayleigh Glickley (Junior A) who won bronze on vault and floor, for Mary Xakelllis (Junior B) who was runner up on floor and for Gianna Pasquesi (Junior B) who was third on beam. In the Senior age group Jordan-Ann Scott was second on uneven bars.

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