Girls gymnastics: Glenbard South finishes 2nd at UEC meet
With the Oswego co-op team dominating the competition, the only suspense at Saturday’s Upstate Eight Conference meet was which team would finish second and who would take the individual all-around second-place title.
For the third year in a row, the Oswego co-op took top honors, scoring 138.5 points. Sam Phillip, an Oswego junior, also pulled off the three-peat, earning her third all-around Upstate Eight first place medal, tallying 35.9 points. The team won all four events.
Glenbard South (125.5) edged out Riverside-Brookfield by one point to finish second.
Ashley Simko, who competes for the U-46 co-op team, scored 33.3 points to earn second place All-around honors. The U-46 co-op team (120.15) finished fourth.
Oswego first-year coach Mike Borge attributes his team’s deep roster for its success. The squad is populated by athletes from both Oswego and Oswego East high schools. Nine gymnasts competed.
“We have so many bodies to fill those slots…we're going to have over half our girls sitting out because we only put up 10 (for both varsity and junior varsity),” said Borge, a former Glenbard South gymnast. “To have that many bodies and really talented kids that want to work hard, it's a great problem to have.”
“I’m excited. I was really happy with how things turned out today,” Phillip said. “Floor and vault were very good. Bars was OK. I mean, I'm happy with my score, but it didn't go as planned.”
Oswego’s Ava Sullivan won three events: uneven bars (8.8), balance beam (8.9) and floor exercise (9.4). Phillip took top honors in the vault (9.25).
Glenbard South coach Lee Wood has the reverse problem, but he made the most of his roster.
”This is the first year with the least amount of kids involved in gymnastics, and the highest score we've had in almost 10 to 15 years,” Wood said. “I'm really happy with just how they came together. They really enjoyed starting to do better.”
Ava Blalock led Glenbard South, finishing fourth (32.1) in the all-around. The sophomore’s best showing was in the uneven bars. Her score of 8.2 earned her fifth place,
“Blalock is an amazing gymnast,” said Wood. “She picks up things very easy and she's easy to coach.”
Simko finished second in both the vault and uneven bars, but the Bartlett senior was most pleased with her balance beam routine.
“I was most happy with my beam score. I usually don't compete in beam, so it's a new event for me,” said the senior. “So, my score of 7.85 was pretty good.”
In addition to Bartlett, the U-46 co-op team is comprised of gymnasts from Elgin, Larkin, South Elgin and Streamwood high schools.
Glenbard East’s Oliva Broyles (31.85) took fifth place in the all-around. The senior’s best showing was on the balance beam where she finished fourth. Glenbard East (115) came in fifth in the team standings.
Riverside-Brookfield’s Paige Phelan (32.7) finished third in the all-around.