Girls gymnastics: Palatine hits season high, advances to Conant sectional
The pressure was on Wednesday night when four teams lined up for the Palatine girls gymnastics regional meet with a berth to the Conant sectional next week on the line.
Prospect put together a solid effort with 135.1 points, but it was not enough to prevent the host Pirates from capturing the championship with season-high 138.85 points for their 26th regional title in school history.
DeKalb co-op took third place with 130.775 points while Hoffman Estates (124.075 points) took fourth place. The top five individuals in each event and all-around advanced to sectionals. The cut-off scores for at-large sectional qualifiers will be announced after the Fremd sectional Thursday night.
Palatine senior Jolee Waddington catapulted to the all-around crown with 37.65 points (9.41 average) as she posted first-place marks of 9.65 on vault, 9.6 on floor exercise, and 9.5 on balance beam.
"It was a season-high, it was a home-court advantage a little bit, and overall everybody chipped in," said Palatine coach Terry Theobald, whose team scored 35.425 points on balance beam. "Beam was our best event, and meets are won and lost on beam. We've got four more practices now before sectionals on Monday."
Waddington did lose a half a point due to a fall on uneven bars, but she still stuck her landing on that event to place second with an 8.9.
"I came out strong with vault, and then bars wasn't my best this time around but you've got to change your mentality quickly before you go to your next event and I think our whole team did that," said Waddington. "We fought and proved that we deserved to be here, and I think floor and beam were our strongest events today. I'm so proud of my team and getting to share this moment with them."
Prospect teammates Callan Morris (34.525 points) and Alicia He (33.225) placed 2-4 in the all-around while Hoffman Estates senior Nia Bridgeman (33.15 points) also advanced to sectionals in fifth place overall.
"I'm very proud of them. I know that they're hard on themselves and they wish they would have performed better," said Prospect coach Monica Donner. "We started out very well. We had a couple of falls on bars and sometimes it's hard to leave an event behind and let's start a fresh one."
Morris was the uneven bars champion with a 9.15 while teammate Ava Boesen placed third on that event with an 8.7 to advance to sectionals. Prospect's Annika Dolney and Palatine's Cate Morris (9.075) tied for second on balance beam.
Palatine freshman Calen Keller placed fourth on uneven bars with an 8.475. Boesen (32.975 points) and Palatine's Sofia Terrell (32.95 points) placed 6-7 in the all-around. Prospect's Taryn Sorensen placed fourth on vault (8.75). Boesen and Keller went 3-4 on uneven bars while Morris placed fifth on vault (8.7). Terrell (8.75) placed fifth on beam.
"It was a really good meet, and I feel like they did amazing on the balance beam," said Hoffman Estates coach Katie Miller, whose team also scored 33.2 points on vault. "They did really well on floor, and they just did everything that we've been practicing all season."