Batavia's Besic medals at state

A typical Saturday for many best friends often entails talking on their phone, surfing social network Web sites and searching for somewhere to go and something to do.

For Batavia gymnasts Rachel Besic and Emma Gear, their atypical Saturday plans took them to Palatine High School where the duo competed in the IHSA girls gymnastics championship state finals.

They earned the esteemed opportunity on Friday night as Besic tied for ninth on vault and Gear survived a deduction for her music ending too soon, and moved on in the floor exercise by tying for 10th place.

"Having my best friend compete here with me is really nice," Besic said. "I wasn't lonely out there and I got to cheer for her on floor."

Vault was the first of the four events on Saturday and Besic made the most of her final opportunity.

She struck her tsuk pike on her first vault attempt and then expanded her repertoire by unveiling a tsuk half for the first time.

"It's different because it's a blind landing and it's hard to see," Besic said. "Even if I didn't hit the first one I planned on throwing something new with this being state and my last year."

The decision proved to be a sharp one as Besic was awarded a 9.65 for her tsuk half, which earned her fourth place.

Besic became just the second Batavia medalist and the first since Laura Jungels took fifth in floor exercise in 1996 and sixth in the all-around in 1997.

"Just getting to this meet and competing was something I wanted to do, but then to get to finals, that was totally unexpected," she said. ""I just decided to go all out on it and I actually landed it and stuck it which was really cool."

Gear fell during her floor routine and the sophomore ended up settling for 12th place with an 8.925.

"Not as well as I had hoped," Gear said. "It was great to be here though. It felt much bigger out there, like you're recognized as being one of the best."

While Gear's floor routine wasn't as crisp as her 9.3 on Friday, the experience was one she enjoyed carrying out with her best friend. It's also something she'd like to repeat the next two winters. "The coaches joked about of all the people to get here together that it would be us two, but it worked out that way," Gear said. "This has been a great experience and I would love to come back here again."