Girls gymnastics: Lake Park avoids falls, flies to DuKane Conference championship

Lake Park and the rest of girls gymnastics teams in the conference got tropical during the DuKane Conference meet on Wednesday evening, but only the Lancers hit all their routines.

They needed such tremendous execution to get past Wheaton co-op, 143.4 to 142.925, to capture the conference title in the tropical decor of Glenbard North.

“The girls have been really working hard on consistency and today they were able to hit all 20 routines,” Lancers coach Jake Luketin said. “We had no falls. That makes a big difference. That’s a big deal.”

It certainly was a big deal for Lancers senior Julia Bartnik to win the all-around title with a 37.3. She also won the vault with a 9.575. She was second on floor with a 9.375, third on bars with a 9.175 and fourth on beam with a 9.175.

“I try my best and focus on a little thing on every single event and try to perfect it every single meet,” Bartnik said. “I try to get 1% better every day and it turned out well today. I’m proud of myself.”

And she’s enjoying herself.

“If I didn’t have my teammates behind me I definitely wouldn’t have been able to perform and have fun like I did today,” she said. “Our energy was high throughout the whole time and we had fun.”

Lake Park had lost at home to Wheaton co-op 142.2 to 142 on Jan. 10. Both teams were better this time.

“It’s amazing. They’ve been back and forth with Wheaton all year,” Luketin said. “When we dualed them two weeks ago I think we were behind them by two-tenths and we were a few ahead today. We’ve seen them at invites and they’ve been ahead of us.”

Cali Keefe was fifth on bars with a 9.1 and Christina Benza tied for second on vault with a 9.35 for the Lancers.

“We’re very uplifting of each other,” Keefe said. “We all trust each other to hit now so it makes the whole lineup feel easier and less pressure.”

Haylie Hinckley was vying for her third straight all-around conference title for Wheaton co-op and scored a 36.875 for fourth place. She won floor with a 9.575.

Jordan Wach’s finest effort of the season gave her a a 37.125 to tie for second and lead Wheaton.

“This was definitely my best meet of my high school career, definitely, and I’ve had some rough meets,” she said. “ I had troubles with vault, but adjusted my hand mat. It was really good to have everything click at the same time and was just really fun.”

Wach’s teammate Mia LaFratta won bars with a 9.45.

“It was great, everything went well,” she said. “I was super thrilled, but it was a bit stressful because it was the last routine for our team for the meet and I don’t like waiting until the end. But I was very happy with the way it went, especially because we had a rough start. I’m proud of how we all came back and didn’t let that affect us. Everyone stepped up. I was happy with how we did today.”

St. Charles co-op slipped past Geneva, 139.725 to 139 to capture third place. Batavia was fifth with 128,025 and the host Panthers scored 120.725.

Geneva sophomore Reese Lackey tied Wach for second in the all-around and won beam with a 9.525.

“Coming into it it’s nerve-racking, but it gets exciting going towards the end, so it’s a lot of fun and everybody (from conference) is here,” she said. “This (is the result) of a lot of practice and a lot of goal setting and trying to hit those goals we go forward. There was a lot of hard work going into it.”

Geneva senior Brooke Lussnig was fifth in the all-around with a 36.275 while St. Charles co-op junior Rachel Nicastro was sixth with a 35.8.

Batavia was led by Marissa Serpico’s 32 while Delia Fulton was sixth on vault.