Patriots wrap up title at New Trier

Stevenson's girls gymnastics team got the holiday season started early on Saturday afternoon by gifting themselves the New Trier Holiday Invite title in Winnetka.

The Patriots scored 147.7 to top Fremd (143.075) and Carmel (141.825) in the eight-team field.

It was a meet which could bear some resemblance to the state meet in February at Palatine, with the same three teams in contention for state trophies.

Chelsie Seplowin (37.675) and Ali Castriano (36.65) placed 1-2 in the all-around leading the Patriots to the top spot

"This meet made it exciting to see if we can compete with Fremd," Stevenson coach Judy Harwood said. "It was a good meet for us."

Out of all four events, parallel bars was Stevenson's best. The Patriots hit a team score of 38.1.

"On bars, we're looking for that level of performance and I know we can do that on the other events," Harwood said. "The girls have confidence and I'm pretty sure they can deliver it."

Caitlin Pagano swung her best on bars taking the top spot at 9.7, followed by Seplowin (9.675), Stephanie Wojton (9.45) and Shana Manning (9.375) as Stevenson swept the top four.

"I recently learned the 'geinger' and started competing it," said Pagano, a sophomore and is competing with a minor stress fracture in her back. "I'm holding back on the other events and bars the easiest to right now."

Seplowin had her first opportunity on the bars. She hit her set and also did the all-around for the first time, taking first place.

"It felt really good to hit it," Seplowin said. "I've had problems with the 'geinger' because of a timing issue. When I caught it today, I was like, 'I got it.'

"I've been doing everything but bars, because of the timing thing. I knew I was doing all-around and if I wanted to win it. I had to hit the bar routine for the team."

Seplowin earned first on beam (9.3), second on floor (9.25) and also placed third on vault (9.475). Castriano took fourth on floor (9.125) and in a fifth-place tie on beam with Fremd's Tori Sarantakis (9.075). Stephanie Wojton was fifth (9.075) and finished fourth in the all-around (36.1).

Fremd's Sarantakis had the third best all-around score (36.45). Sarantakis tied for the top spot on the vault with Carmel's Amber Mirski (9.55) and placed third on floor (9.15). Caitlin Golota was fourth on vault (9.45) and fifth on bars (9.175).

Fremd didn't have the meet which was expected and didn't score well on floor (34.050) and beam (35.675) but the Vikings recovered and posted better score on vault (37.4) and on bars (35.95).

"Kids are competing a lot better and practices are going well," Fremd coach Jim Guest said. "With the tough part of the meet, I thought our kids handled it very well. You're going to have meets like this from time to time. Better to have it now than later in the year.

"It was a good learning experience for us going into the break. It gives us added motivation to fix things and get better."

Carmel was led by Amber Mirski who took fifth in the all-around (35.9).Along with the top spot on vault, Mirski had the top score on floor (9.25). Kristin Mirski tied for fifth with Niles North's Citali Cueves on vault (9.4). And Dani Clement finished fouth on beam (9.15).

"We're just not finishing our routines," said Carmel coach Sarah Mikrut-Doyle of her teams' effort. "Maybe, we need to be more intense out there."