Piotrowski proves she's ready to shoulder burden

Thursday's girls gymnastics meet against undefeated Glenbard North was a giant stepping stone for Naperville North's Sami Piotrowski.

Piotrowski, in only her second dual meet since returning from eight idle months recovering from shoulder surgery, won the all-around with a score of 37.85, but the host Huskies (1-2, 1-2) lost to the highly ranked Panthers 145.4 to 141.05.

In winning the individual competition, Piotrowski scored over 9.0 to lead her team in all four events and led the entire field in both the uneven bars with a 9.55 and the balance beam with a 9.5

"This is a huge step in the right direction," said Piotrowski, who finished fourth in state in the vault and fifth on the beam last year. "It was a big confidence-booster, and I'll be able to build from this."

Piotrowski was also happy that her team was able to come within 5 points of Glenbard North, a team right up there with the best in the state.

"Glenbard North is probably the best team we'll compete against in dual meets," Piotrowski said. "They have so many good gymnasts I wouldn't be surprised if they won state. But we had a solid meet. It was the best we've done on bars and our vaults were really good. We'll learn from this and keep getting better."

Marissa Bosco of Glenbard North, who scored a 37.05, earned second place in the all-around, and teammate Amber Fox finished third with a 36.1.

Bosco had the highest score in the vault, a 9.65, and the defending state champion in the floor exercise won that even with a 9.55.

The Panthers (7-0, 3-0) have won four meets in the past week, and, according to coach Edsel Clark, that schedule has taken its toll on his team.

"We won in terms of score but not in terms of performance," Clark said. "We didn't want to add anything new, we just wanted to focus on hitting our routines, and we didn't. We're a little disappointed going into winter break with this performance. We do need some rest."

The Panthers will rest for five days and then have two weeks of practice before their next meet Jan. 10.

While he wasn't pleased with the overall performance, Clark admitted there were some Panthers highlights.

"Marissa and Amber Fox both had good floor routines, and Amy Wolf was great on the parallel bars," Clark said.

Naperville North coach Chris Stanicek agreed with Piotrowski's assessment that the meet represented a positive step for the Huskies.

"Sami is coming back strong," Stanicek said. "She's going to be a force to be reckoned with at the end of the year. Tori Tanaka is really coming along on the floor and vault, and her bars are very strong. And Megan McLeeran was great on the beams.

"I'm psyched about the season. We came close and that was a plus, and we got the all-around and that's a big thing."