Geneva posts season-best score at Glenbard East

Michaela Allen said she would never do gymnastics again.

The Geneva senior told herself that during her sophomore year after tearing her ACL during club gymnastics.

Now she's happy she went back on her word.

Allen scored a 35.1 in the all-around to help Geneva score a season-best 139.85 to easily outscore Glenbard East's 132.85 and Elk Grove's 109.35 during a triangular meet on Wednesday in Lombard.

"After tearing my ACL I said I wouldn't compete again," Allen said. "So I took two years off but then Claire (Ginsberg) came up to me during the summer and said the team could really use me so I thought about it and figured I might as well do it since it's my senior year."

Apparently Ginsberg's ability to change an old friend's mind is as impressive as her skills as a gymnast. Ginsberg won all four events, scoring a 37.35 in the all-around.

"I've done gymnastics with Claire since probably when I was in first grade, and then everybody else I'm friends with at school and they are all really nice," Allen said. "I like high school gymnastics because it's a team sport as opposed to individual and it takes some of the pressure off and is a lot more fun."

Ginsberg scored a 9.1 or better in each event, including a pair of 9.5s on floor and beam.

"It's exciting to be back," Ginsberg said. "Our focus was to get a higher team score for the seeding for regional, but we had a few mistakes. We added some things, more difficulty, but we did pretty well today. Hopefully we can do even better at the (Robin Straus Invitational at Lake Forest) on Saturday."

Showing their outstanding depth, the Vikings had eight gymnasts who contributed a score to the team total. Ginsberg, Allen and Bailey Pihera led the way as all-arounders, while Gracie De Vita, Paige Beitzel, Lindsay King, Kelly Frank and Lily Chapman also helped their cause.

"I was absolutely pleased with what we were able to do here," Vikings coach Kim Hostman said. "It was fun. We're adding some new skills, but we know we have a lot more work to do."

Glenbard East was strong but not as good as it was the last time it competed. The Rams had scored a season-high 136.15 at Oswego on Dec. 23 but dropped by 3.3 points.

Veronica Srey edged teammate Kelsey Donovan, 33.85 to 33.6 for the team's highest all-around score while Sierra Olson added a 32.5.

"We didn't do our best today, but we finished strong on floor, which was nice," Olson said. "I'm still trying to get my tsuk back and I'm trying to be more consistent on beam. Tonight my beam score was one of my lowest, so I want to do better on that and to just hit all my routines."

As a freshman Donovan has stepped in and made an impact. While she's still a newcomer, she feels like she's been a part of the program for years already.

"I love the girls. We have so much fun and it's nonstop laughing with us," she said. "We wanted to score higher than this and we had practiced a lot during the break, but it just didn't work out. I did land my Yurchenko tuck in a meet for the first time in three years so there was some good things tonight."

The youngsters led the way for Elk Grove. Sophomore Anna Sprenger had the team's top score in all but floor and finished with a 31.5 in the all-around. Freshman Katie Talens paced the Grenadiers on floor with a 7.8.