Hoffman satisified with second at regional; Prairie Ridge wins title
Hoffman Estates' young guns got a look at hopefully what will be their future Monday at the girls gymnastics regional meet Monday at Hoffman Estates.
The Hawks, who feature three freshmen in their lineup, had perennial state power Prairie Ridge in the regional with them. The Wolves easily won the regional title with a score of 142.325, but Hoffman Estates came away extremely pleased with its second place score of 133.675.
"We did some good things tonight and did some things that we normally do better, " Hoffman Estates coach Dave Calisch said. "It is the pressure of state series meets."
Calisch said the meet was a great learning experience for his young team.
"We are still trying to learn to win," Calisch said. "In a meet like this we learn that there is potential. We need to learn how to calm the nerves and learn how to get to the next level."
Hoffman Estates has not won a regional title since 1985. The Hawks do have an opportunity to advance to the sectionals, which they haven't done since 2007. Their score on Monday could be one of the two at-large scores at next week's Conant sectional.
The Hawks had a pair of gymnasts who automatically qualified as individuals for next week's sectionals.
Elyssa Wuerffel qualified on the floor where she was third with a 9.00 and the beam where she was fifth with an 8.75. Wuerffel was fourth in the all-around with a 35.10.
Sol Serratos qualified on the vault by finishing fifth with a 9.10. Serratos was seventh in the all-around with a 34.325.
Wurfeel (vault, bars), Serratos (floor) and Paige Biggs (bars), who are all freshmen, finished in the top 10. Hunter Freye (bars, floor), Olivia Biggs (vault) and Charlee Campos (floor) also had top 10 finishes.
Prairie Ridge, which is a co-op team with participants from Prairie Ridge, Cary-Grove and Crystal Lake South, was second in the state last year. That came on the heels of three consecutive state titles.
"It was rough" said Prairie Ridge coach Lee Battaglia on his team's performance on Monday. "Even in our vault and bars, it wasn't what they normally score. So we just expected a little bit more."
The Wolves took the top 3 spots in two of the events and had the top three all-arounders. Sydney Hallsten, who is from Cary-Grove, was second in the all-around with a 36.325 She also won the vault with a 9.50.
"It was interesting," said Hallsten, who is a freshman "It wasn't my best meet. I had a nice vault and I stayed on the beam, so that was good."
Teammate Grace Willis won the all-around with a 36.70 while Maxie Kim was third with a 35.775. Willis won the floor with a 9.45 and the beam with a 9.275 while Kim won the bars with a 9.55.
Prospect finished third with a 128.05 behind Olivia Tader, who was an automatic sectional qualifier on the vault where she scored a 9.15, and fifth on the floor with a 8.875. Tader (beam, Naiya Rooks (vault), Kaiya Koyanagi (vault) and Jill Schmit (bars, beam, floor) all performed well for the Knights.
Tader was sixth in the all-around with a 34.525 while Schmit was eighth with a 32.60.
"We did pretty well," Prospect coach Monica Donner said. "We had some nervousness coming into the regionals."
Fenton's Emily Trzmielewski was 13th in the all-around with a 29.20. Trzmielewski's best event was the bars where she finished 14th. It was also the last meet for senior Nicole Maciulewicz.
"Our girls give it all that they got," Fenton coach Paula Parat said. "We are high school athletes. They come here with just a little training and they did pretty well."