St. Charles co-op defeats Glenbard North
Rachel Dugan didn’t have to alter her routines and skills to be successful this season.
She finished tied for 26th in the all-around as a freshman during last winter’s state finals while helping St. Charles co-op advance to the finals as a team.
Rather than be satisfied with her moves and skills from a season ago though, Dugan has added plenty to all four events and she put them on display during St. Charles co-op’s 142.6 to 134.75 victory over Glenbard North on Wednesday in Carol Stream.
Dugan won three events and posted the top all-around score with an even-37. She had a 9.65 on vault, 9.55 on beam, 9 on floor and 8.8 on bars.
“I was really happy with vault and beam,” Dugan said. “On bars I made a couple mistakes, because I added some skills, but overall I was pretty happy because we were able to come back strong individually and as a team.”
Last year Dugan perfected a pike tsuk on vault. She has switched to a Yurchenko layout and nailed it against the Panthers. She’s sprinkled some other changes to her other routines as well and is among the Top 12 returning all-arounders in the state.
“I have pretty much all new routines,” she said. “I’ve added a new release move on bars and a couple new tumbling passes.”
Sidney Copeland, who was injured last season, had a 34.8 in the all-around, which included a 9.35 on beam.
Devon Ross added a 9.25 on vault, Kelly Gorniak had an 8.8 on bars and 8.9 on floor and Cathryn Gotlund added an 8.85 on beam for the winners.
“We’re off to a good start, but obviously there are some things we can improve on,” St. Charles coach Amy Lill said. “It’s nice to see our score has consistently been going up though.”
St. Charles has time off with its next meet not scheduled until Jan. 7 at Glenbard East.
“It’ll be kind of nice to have a little down time,” Lill said. “We still have girls out and we hope to do get Kelly (Gornak) and Cathryn (Gotlund) to do some vaulting over break.”
Glenbard North freshman Leah Roman broke her ankle during Tuesday’s practice. The Panthers didn’t succumb to any injuries Wednesday but struggled all evening in execution.
“We just had a rough meet and have had a couple rough practices the last couple days,” Panthers coach Kristin Nordquist said. “We’ve been working really hard on hitting our routines and had been doing a good job, but today we struggled with our hit percentage.”
Allison Wahrman was one of the few bright spots for the Panthers, recording a 9.55 on vault and a 35.15 in the all-around. Anna Slater added a 9.1 on beam and 8.9 beam and Shayna Bott scored an 8.85 on floor.