An all-around good night for Glenbard West
Glenbard West senior Missy Guzman is hoping to make her third and final trip to Palatine later this month.
She also realizes that the Hilltoppers will probably need her score as an all-arounder in order to attain such a goal.
Competing as an all-arounder for just the third time this season at Wednesday's Glenbard West regional, Guzman claimed the all-around title, eclipsing the 37-mark for the first time in her brilliant four-year career. She won bars and floor with a 9.35 in each event, while sharing top honors with freshman teammate Mackenzie O'Keefe on beam with a 9.375.
The Hilltoppers breezed to victory, posting a 145.2. South Elgin/Bartlett/Streamwood co-op was distant second with a 132.275 and followed by Fenton's 126.6 and Glenbard South's 117.575.
“I like competing all-around a lot more because when I wasn't doing bars I felt like I was letting the team down,” Guzman said. “It definitely went very well tonight. It helped being here the past couple of years, knowing how to handle it and having fun with it.”
While Guzman is one of the tested veterans of this group, O'Keefe continued her stellar debut season as the took second in the all-around with a 36.775.
“This was a great culmination for Missy to get her career high,” Glenbard West coach Carlos Fuentes said. “And Mackenzie has come along so well from an injury. She's coming off a second-place finish at conference where she was also beam champion. She continued it with a great meet tonight.”
Glenbard West got off to a strong start on vault, claiming four of the top six scores, including Abbie Garchitorena's 9.375.
“It's one of my best events so I know that I can always do good on it,” Garchitorena said. “It's always important to have a nice start in the meet.”
Nicole Pagor added a third big all-around total for the Hilltoppers, taking fourth with a 35.35. She added a 9.3 on vault and a 9.175 on floor, finishing only behind Guzman on both events.
“Since we've done this before we know what it feels like and know what we have to do to make the next step,” Pagor said. “Now we're just preparing for another step.”
The Hilltoppers' next obstacle is Glenbard North and the rest of the field next Wednesday. The Panthers will host one of the four state sectionals.
“If you're a competitor you're going to try to win that meet,” Fuentes said. “The District 87 meet was too close to call in our opinion. We feel we can hit. We have the experience of being there before and we look forward to the challenge, but we know we're going to have to hit.”
Maggie Phillips added a fifth-place finish on bars with an 8.625 as the Hilltoppers had 16 individual scores qualify for sectional.
South Elgin/Bartlett/Streamwood had one at-large qualifier as Alyssa Konkel just snuck in, tying for fifth on beam with an 8.775 and snatching fifth in the all-around with a 35.1
Fenton's Taylor Patton had a big day, averaging an 8.931 in her four events to take third in the all-around with a 35.725. She also qualified on vault, beam and floor.
“It went pretty good for me,” Patton said. “Vault was much better and I stuck beam which was very good.”
Patton will be joined in Carol Stream next week by teammates Haley Sabala and Sara Polvi. Sabala qualified on bars with an 8.675 while Polvi had a 9.275 on vault, a 9.145 on floor and 8.7 on bars to continue her senior campaign.