St. Charles pushes scores higher again
There were no cookies, cupcakes or pudding cups on Monday, nor were there team-made posters decorated with glitter, photos and well wishes for the nine seniors on the St. Charles co-op girls gymnastics squad.
The seniors will have to wait a little while to be recognized. It won’t happen until the after-season banquet, and by that time the team may very well be celebrating not only a state appearance, but a state trophy too.
St. Charles co-op was fantastic during its lone home meet of the season, easily defeating Lake Park, 147.45 to 137.5.
The 147.45 points were a season-high for St. Charles. Prairie Ridge co-op, Lyons and Fremd are the only schools to have surpassed a 147.45 this winter.
Coach Amy Lill was unsure where the score ranked in St Charles history, although it’s certainly sniffing the all-time best. St. Charles scored a 148.425 to take second place in the state in 1998. Interestingly enough, it was former Streamwood/Bartlett/South Elgin co-op coach Amy August who led the way for the 1998 Saints.
Now, 15 years later, maybe it’s time for the co-op to have similar success.
“They’ve been very consistent and keep building upon the prior meets,” Lill said. “I think it’s going to just come down to them being consistent. Typically we’ve never peaked as early as we have in the past. Now we’ll see if we can maintiain the momentum into conference and the state series.”
Tremendous balance in the lineup proved vital to St. Charles’ eye-popping score. Kelly Gorniak led the way on vault with a 9.6, senior Andrea Schwarz posted a team-best 9.15 on bars, Carthryn Gotlund and Dugan each had a 9.4 on beam and senior Jesi Ortiz put a wonderful finishing touch on the night with a 9.4 on floor.
Dugan led the way for St. Charles with a 36.95 in the all-around while junior Sidney Copeland was just a step behind her with a 36.65.
“It was a really good night for us,” Copeland said. “I feel like we accomplished something. We came into this meet saying we need to hit every routine and that’s what we did.”
In addition to Ortiz’s effort on floor, as well as vault (9.4), the other seniors had excellent final home meets as well. Alix Scherer had a 9.2 on beam, Schwartz also recorded a 9.15 on bars, and Sydney Olson, who has missed nearly all of the season with an injury, competed on bars with an 8.45.
“After being out for two months, I’m just excited to be able to come back and contribute,” Olson said. “It’s already been a very exciting year and I can’t wait to see what else might happen.”
Freshman Jesse-Lee Vanden Eykel led the Lancers. She had her cleanest vault of the season and her pike tsuk netted a 9.5.
“I’ve been working on it a lot and have landed it but this was a lot better,” she said. “I thought I might be worse after not practicing (since Saturday’s Neuqua Invite) but I was wrong, I guess.”
Other notable scores for the Lancers included an 8.7 on bars from Rachel Fischer, an 8.9 on beam from Annalise Donati and an 8.55 on floor from Demi Goodwin.