Plichta, Fremd beaming after New Trier victory

Sydney Plichta was the last one up on the balance beam for Fremd's girls gymnastics team.

Thanks to the terrific preceding performances from her teammates, though, there wasn't all that much pressure. Plichta followed suit and the senior delivered another clean routine, earning the top score of 9.475.

The Vikings' Carly DeFilippo landed in the third spot with a 9.4, Chrissy Radochonski was fourth at 9.3 and Mariah Gura added a 9.075 as the Vikings posted an impressive 37.25 beam score on Saturday afternoon.

"It was an awesome feeling to see all my teammates to do a wonderful job before me," Plichta said. "They got the energy level really high. So it was really exciting for me to go last and finish the meet with a bang. I really don't have too many nerves, and my teammates help me with that. We just comfort each other before and after the routines no matter what happens."

Fremd won the New Trier Holiday Invite for the third straight year with a 144.55, while Carmel Catholic finished in the second spot (142.725) and host New Trier placed third (142.35) in Winnetka.

"I'm very pleased for these girls to be able to bring it back on beam with four 9s," said Fremd coach Elise Ference ,whose team didn't fare as well on floor (34.75)."They came back on beam and these girls hit. These girls are fighters."

Radochonski chalked up third in the all-around 33.35 behind Carmel Catholic's Sammi Lococo 37.725 and New Trier's Samantha Stoddart 36.9. She also had top honors on vault (9.525) along with fourth on beam (9.3) and fifth on bars (9.075).

"My team gave me so much energy and it was so easy to build off of that," said Radochonski of her Yurchenko pike vault. "I was able to stick the vault and I've never done that before. It's really hard to get that exact (landing)."

Also contributing for Fremd were Emily Neal (second on bars, 9.15) and Gab Lytle (third on vault, 9.425).

Carmel Catholic has been dealing with injuries from the start of the season and continues to battle through them. The Corsairs are showing improved depth, though, and posted their season-best score. Carmel started the season with nine gymnasts and now has five healthy enough to compete.

"The girls are starting to look really good," said Carmel Catholic coach Nicole Stroup. "These five are picking up the emotional ups and downs that we have this year. They are being there for there teammates. There's pressure, but they are rising up to the occasion with everything they've gone through."

In addition to winning the all-around, Lococo danced to the top spot on the floor (9.675), placed second on vault (9.5) and beam (9.425) and finished third on bars (9.125).

"I think my floor was the best," Lococo said. "I just have fun showing off my routine. I do like to do the dance part. The tumbling - I know I can do that. But I just want to go out there and have fun showing it off."

Antonia Durnil also finished fourth in all-around (36.25) and took fourth on floor (9.3), while Kelly Gustafson placed fifth on floor (9.025) for the Corsairs.

Warren finished fifth with 133.95 and Stevenson was seventh at 124.675 in the eight-team field.

The Blue Devils were without Northern Illinois-bound Emily Basara for the Invite, since was on a family vacation.

"We were able to give other girls an opportunity and they stepped up," Warren coach Mary Kovac said. "Right now were adding difficulty to our tricks. We will be ready coming up in January and will improve each meet."

Warren freshman Teagon Albert recently got back to gymnastics after taking a few years off following multiple stress fractures in each wrist.

"I had to leave because of them," Albert said. "Coming back, it's a lot of fun doing what I used to do. I just missed doing gymnastics."

Albert captured third on the floor (9.35) and took fifth on the beam 9.2.

Stevenson's Mikaela Webb picked up fifth on the vault 9.3.