Lake Zurich has enough to get past Libertyville
Just a few weeks into the season, Lake Zurich is starting to show that some of its girls gymnasts are putting things together after dealing with some early season injuries.
The Bears are into their third season since returning back to competition and the program appears to be growing from year to year.
Lake Zurich chalked up another North Suburban Conference victory over host Libertyville 137.4 to 130.05 on Wednesday night.
Joanna Topa made her first appearance from an ankle injury and competed only on the balance beam. She had reached the state meet and placed 11th in the finals back in February.
Topa finished third with an 8.35 with her first chance getting back to perform.
"I had sprained my ankle on vault and I was out for the first few weeks," Topa said. "This was my first meet back. I've been practicing and working as hard I could getting my skills back. Actually, I've had only three practices before this meet. I kept up my confidence and the team encouraged me to keep up my confidence. It felt good. At first I was a little nervous about starting. Eventually, I got the confidence to keep going and not give up."
Sophomore Rayna Kauffman competed in three events on Wednesday, placing in all three, taking the top spot on vault (9.3) and bars (9.15), and second on floor with a 9.15 for the Bears. Kauffman didn't compete on beam, because she hurt her back recently in practice.
On her floor routine, she hit her last pass and had an expression that could make a dream come true and that left a huge big smile on her face.
"I just landed it, instead of landing on my back," Kauffman said. "It was all a surprise. I had all my teammates in the corners helping me a lot. I look at them and they look at me giving me the confidence. I have worked on it a lot in practice, I'm just happy to land it."
Lake Zurich's Kelsey Rothas landed in the top spot on the floor (9.25), while Kayla Bailey earned first place on beam (9.4).
AJ Burk was runner-up in the all-around (33.2) and Rothas third (32.6).
"We showed some really good progress and we showed a lot of areas of improvement," Lake Zurich coach Chelsea Groteleuschen said. "That's exactly where you want to be at this time of year. As we go further in December, holiday break and into January, you really want to work on different areas. You need to fill and develop as a team. We have a lot of girls that are starting to come out of injuries and we're hoping over time to get them into the meets more. So the gymnastics keeps going up for us."
Emily Becker led Libertyville by taking the all-around with a 34.15. The freshman placed second on the vault (9.2) and bars (8.9).
"I did the Yurchenko pike vault," Becker said. "I thought it was it was pretty good, I was able to get a good block off the table. If you get all the pieces together it makes you get off the table together."
The Wildcats' Maya Roiland finished second (8.4) on the beam and Cameron Hamilton placed third on floor (8.65).
"I was very proud of our efforts with some of our girls that haven't competed yet," Libertyville coach Tiffany Owens said. "We still have a lot of room to grow and a lot of skills to put in. We're learning to improve and get better."