Girls gymnastics: Lake Park rises above field to take DuKane crown

Lake Park vaulted to victory Wednesday night in Wheaton during the DuKane Conference girls gymnastics meet.

The Lancers finished with a total of 142.625 points, comfortably ahead of runner-up Wheaton co-op’s 136.275.

Senior Cristina Benza (9.275), Penelope Panagiotopoulos (9.175) and Sami Eichholz (9.1) secured the top three places on vault for the Lancers while Annabella Suchan (9.0) tied for fifth place.

“I was most proud of vault because I came back from an injury last season,” Benza said. “I’m proud of how I performed there and thanks to the support of all my teammates that helped me push through and just go for it. We kind of calm each other down, focus on what we’re doing and we’re putting in the work in the gym and just focusing on what we’re doing to make sure that we just perform our best all the time.”

Benza (9.125) also won bars.

Competing in her first conference meet as a freshman, Suchan (34.55) took second in the all-around.

"I just love competing,” Suchan said. “I did Bloomingdale Park District gymnastics so I’ve known most of (my teammates) since third grade. I’ve been friends with them for a long time so this was nothing new really.”

St. Charles co-op (135.575) placed third, Geneva (134.025) took fourth, Batavia (122.8) was fifth and Glenbard North (118.15) took sixth.

Geneva’s Reese Lackey (9.25) won beam, narrowly outscoring Wheaton co-op’s Kara Wilkinson (9.2) while St. Charles co-op’s Kaelyn Reder (9.175) was third.

Lackey (9.45) also secured the floor exercise title, matching the score that earned her fourth in the state at Palatine last February.

“(My routine) felt similar to state,” Lacey said. “Conference for me is the start of the postseason so I get a little amped up and a little more excited for those routines to come. I hope that they can continue on getting better in these next couple meets.”

She’s polished, rather than altered, her floor routine in preparation for her final state series run.

“I feel like I’m kind of continuing to nitpick at all the little things that I can fix, but it’s the same routine,” she said. “But hopefully we can do it a little bigger and a little better."

Lackey (36.025) won the all-around title as well.

“It was very nice, I’m thankful.” she said. “I said a little while earlier, even though everyone is working so hard, it’s a little bit of luck because everyone is working so hard, everyone is real good, so it’s exciting.”

While Lackey’s routines deliver big points for the Vikings they probably overshadow all the wonderful things she’s doing as a leader.

“I have an incredible team and I’m close to all of them,” she said. “I feel like I try as much as I can to take a role as a leader to make everyone else excited, because energy feeds off energy and I hope to be that person for me as well as everybody else.”

St. Charles co-op freshman Payton Han posted her team’s top score on vault and bars, led the team in the all-around (34.15) to place third in conference while teammate Natalie Sieloff (33.775) took fourth.

“I am very happy, but I definitely could have done better on beam, I did have a few falls,” Han said. “And I’m hoping for the postseason to put in some more skills on bars. It was definitely surprising. Very happy. I wasn’t expecting it (to finish third), but it was a nice surprise.”

Han’s decision to join the team has been a really good one.

“I think my team is one of my biggest supports and one of the best things that high school gymnastics has given me,” Han said. “I’m very excited to see what we do as a team later in the season.”