No doubt about Klein's victory

Physically, Lenna Klein knew she could excel at all four of her events.

Mentally, she had started to doubt herself a bit after having a mediocre performance at last Friday's DuPage Valley Conference meet in Napervlle.

The Wheaton Warrenville co-op senior forgot about her recent past, winning the all-around with a 35.9 to help her team win Tuesday's Wheaton Warrenville South regional with 140 points, comfortably ahead of runner-up Batavia's 134.025.

"I had a rough week mentally, so I'm glad to have this confidence booster to know that I've still got it," she said. "I've been hurting a lot physically and it's my last year and I want to finish strong, so I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself. Thankfully, I have my team around me to help pick me up when I'm down."

Klein fell twice during her bars routine last week, which started her unraveling.

"I started much better this time," she said. "That kept my confidence up for the rest of the meet."

She won vault with a 9.425 and beam with a 9.075.

Injuries have limited Wheaton Warrenville co-op junior Petrina Chino to competing only on bars, but she made the most of her one chance, winning with a 9.15

"I tweaked my knee a bit, so I watered it down but still did pretty well," Chino said. "Hopefully, by sectional I can add a little more difficulty."

Katie Murphy also won for the co-op, taking the floor title with a 9.15.

"I've put in a lot of work this year on floor, especially building up my skills," she said. "It's nice to come and win it this time which was strange to do because we did vault right before it."

Other notable qualifying scores for the winners, included Sienna Thomas' 9.025 on bars, Brooke Stewart's 8.95 on floor and Julie Galo's 8.8 on floor.

Batavia junior Megan McGee surprised herself somewhat by taking third place in the all-around with a 34.325. She also qualified for next Tuesday's Glenbard North sectional on floor with an 8.75 and vault with a 9.2.

"I wasn't expected to finish that high (in the all-around)," she said. "You never know if you're going to have a good day or bad day and you can have a great warmup and nerves can get to you."

Sophomore Cameron Hindel snagged the fifth and final all-around qualifier for the Bulldogs with a 33.05. She also placed fourth on vault with an 8.85 and tied for fifth on beam with junior teammate Lauren Stangl with an 8.3.

"I don't know what to say really, I'm just surprised," Hindel said. "I seriously have no words for it."

Hindel advanced to last year's sectional, but only on vault.

"I've really grown so much from last year," she said. "I came into this year not wanting to do beam and now it's one of my better events. I'm proud of myself and proud of my team too."

Perhaps the best story for Batavia though was Kristi Zabka. The senior, who is coming off shoulder surgery, competed only on beam and placed fourth with an 8.35 to extend her season to Carol Stream next week.

"I get to work on my skills for at least one more week," she said. "It's very exciting."

Stangl also scored an 8.4 on bars and senior Courtney Glassman had an 8.7 on floor for the Bulldogs. Neither score was good enough to qualify for the sectional, but each could potentially move on via at-large berths once the final regional scores are tallied at York late on Thursday.