Donovan, Glenbard East have big night at regional

As the daughter of former Glenbard East athletes, senior Kelsey Donovan has always felt at home in Lombard as a Ram.

Competing in her final home meet during the Glenbard East regional on Monday, Donovan had her best meet as a high school gymnast. Donovan won beam, floor and vault as well as the all-around with a 37.225 as the Rams rolled to the regional title.

"I love that my last home meet was my best home meet," she said. "There's no other way I would've wanted it."

The Rams posted an impressive 145.175. York edged Batavia, 131.55 to 131.1, to take second. Glenbard South was fourth with a 99.475.

With the regional title the Rams advance to Monday's Glenbard South sectional.

"I love it at home," Donovan said. "I don't know, but we feel comfortable here. We feel confident here. We perform really well here. We perform well other places too, but when we're here we like to show our school what we can do because we're a good team and we're proud of what we can do, and we hope that our school is proud of us too."

Donovan's dad wrestled at Glenbard East. Her mother was a Rams gymnast.

"I'm extremely prideful for my school, extremely proud to go here and do this with the team, making history year after year," she said. "Being a part of the rise of the Glenbard East teams since freshman year. We celebrated qualifying to sectionals at-large my freshman year to where we are today. The changes have been unreal and make me so incredibly proud to be a part of this team."

Junior Becca Honig was right behind Donovan with a 36.925 in the all-around while placing second on all four events, including sharing second with sophomore Erin Donovan on bars. Kali Kartheiser won bars for the Rams and placed third on floor and beam. Erin Donovan was third in the all-around with a 35.075.

"I had a bit of a slip-up this meet, but we always help each other and there's always someone to pick us up," Erin Donovan said. "I know next meet I'll be ready to help the team more."

The Rams will head to the sectional with a great deal of confidence among a talented, yet to-be-determined field that likely will include DeKalb/Sycamore co-op, Lake Park, Wheaton Warrenville co-op and two-time defending state champion Glenbard West.

"The 145 tonight really boosted our confidence with only a 142 at conference (on Saturday," Kelsey Donovan said. "We'll go into the sectional and try to ride off this energy and keep going forward, doing what we've been doing and what we know we can do."

York freshman Kalina Ceglinski heard her named called as a sectional qualifier on vault and beam where she finished in third and fifth place, respectively, but she was surprised when the announcer called her name for earning fourth place in the all-around with a 33.525.

"I thought there were four people doing all-around for Glenbard East who are really good so when they called Batavia (senior Taylor Novotny) fifth, I thought I just missed it, so I was very surprised."

Dukes senior Megan Cronin was fifth on bars and fourth on floor, so she'll join Ceglinski at the Glenbard South sectional.

"It's going to be great to be with (Cronin) for another competition," Ceglinski said. "With it being her senior year it's going to be really nice."

Ceglinski was one of just four gymnasts to score a 9 or better on vault.

"Vault is my best and my favorite event," she said. "I just wanted to make it on vault so I'm very excited for that."

Batavia qualified three gymnasts, including seniors Olivia Bartolotta and Taylor Novotny, who finished fourth and fifth, respectively, on vault and junior Kaitlyn Wesender, who placed fourth on floor. It'll be uncharted waters for Bartolotta and Wesender. Neither had qualified for sectionals until now.

"This is very big for me because this season has not gone the smoothest," Wesender said. "I've had a lot of inconsistencies on floor and I tried a skill that I wasn't exactly the most confident about today, but it turned out good in the end so I'm happy about that."

Wesender admitted that she surprised herself a bit.

"Last week I didn't even think I'd be able to do this because of inconsistencies," she said. "I came in today not knowing how anything would turn out, but I'm really happy that I did make it, and it makes me really excited to go to sectionals with such amazing teammates."

Bartolotta was disappointed with her floor routine but satisfied with her vault.

"You only have this one meet to prove yourself from what you've done all season and that pressure got the best of me on floor," she said. "But I'm glad with how my team did this season and I was really happy with my vault performance today."

Glenbard South freshman Brooke Poltrock paced the Raiders in all four events, finishing with a 30.8.