Naperville Central earns at-large trip to sectional
Naperville Central’s long-time girls gymnastics coach Glen Reimers has never been one to prognosticate.
That doesn’t mean he didn’t have a good idea of what the Redhawks were capable of scoring during Friday’s Lyons Twp. regional in LaGrange. He also understood that the Redhawks didn’t have to beat Lyons (144.35) to advance to next week’s sectional, but they did need to outscore Naperville North (132.8) and to at least equal the 135.125 scored by Neuqua Valley earlier this week.
The Redhawks advanced to Monday’s Hinsdale Central sectional, scoring 138.075 points. It’s the first time they’ve qualified as a team for sectionals since 2007. They also officially eliminated Neuqua Valley from the postseason.
“I knew what we needed to get out of here and they kind of knew,” Reimers said. “I told them a 135 could get us out of here and they said they could do it, but in my head I felt they were way better than 135. They started well by hitting on vault and that set the tone for the whole meet.”
It was a great culmination of a lot of hard work and growth for a Naperville Central team that’s deep but also very young and inexperienced.
The Redhawks incorporated eight gymnasts throughout the evening with the oldest being junior Jessie Cruse, but she’s also new in the sense that this is her first year on the team. The other seven included two freshmen and five sophomores.
“We really strive for a team effort so it’s not one person, but everyone collectively,” Reimers said. “That’s what makes us so good. We have so much depth this year, and once somebody falls a bit we have some to pick them up and that’s something they’ve done all year, which is great to watch.”
Vanessa Henry was the lone all-arounder for the Redhawks, posting a 33.625, and they received a fourth-place vault of 9.2 from Brittany Mitchell, Jessie Cruse’s fourth-place floor routine that was awarded an 8.95 and a fifth-place tie on beam via an 8.7 from Grace Ellis. Perhaps most impressive though was the fact that you can’t hassle Logan Hassler. She finished in third on both bar and beam — the two events she competed on — at the alma mater of David Hasselhoff.
“I didn’t expect bars to go that well, but I did it so I guess I should be able to do it every time now,” Hassler said. “We get so much support on this team. We’re so closely knit and we go out and give it our all 100 percent every time and I think that’s what makes a difference.”
Freshman Michaela Robert led Naperville North in her debut state-series appearance, taking third in the all-around with a 36.125. She also qualified in everything save for vault, taking second place on floor and bars and posting the fourth highest total on beam.
“Today went very well. I was very happy with all of my performances,” she said. “After being gone for a week (on a Honduras mission trip) I was rusty and have finally been able to get to close to where I want to be.”
Like the Redhawks, the Huskies looked to depth to boost their team score with Robert as the team’s only all-arounder and seven gymnastics functioning in specialist roles.
“I was really pleased this season with how the girls kept growing and the things they learned and accomplished,” Huskies coach Chris Stanicek said. “It was a very good season in terms of growth and skills, and they’re hungry and already talking about summer workouts.”
Thanks to at-large qualifiers, Naperville North’s Kaitlyn Daly earned a trip to the Hinsdale Central sectional to try to reproduce her 9.05 on vault. Senior Erin Pope will be alongside her on floor, where she had an 8.625.
“I had a good clean set and had a lot of fun at the end by Tebowing,” Pope said. “I figured I should go out of my last meet with a bang so I threw the Tebow.”
But now she’s been blessed and she’ll have an opportunity to Tebow again.