Glenbard West's Diab wins all-around at state
Maddie Diab won her second all-around title during Friday's IHSA girls gymnastics preliminaries in the individual events and state finals in the all-around.
In doing so the Glenbard West junior inched her team ever closer to its first state championship.
Glenbard West leads Prairie Ridge co-op, 149.55 to 148.75 after Session 1 of the state finals at Palatine. Both teams have several opportunities increase their team scores in Saturday's individual event finals.
Maddie Diab advanced in all but beam, Anna Diab qualified on bars and floor and Taylor Ramirez extended her season another day on beam and floor.
Prairie Ridge has five chances to boost its team score, with Kira Karlblom qualifying in three events, but it faces the huge challenge of needing to increase it by at least 0.8.
"We feel good," Hilltoppers coach Carlos Fuentes said. "We had a couple of falls that we don't characteristically have, but you have to look at the end because we picked it up in other spots and you know, as we say, this is by design."
Maddie Diab winning the all-around by edging Maine South's Caleigh Pistorius 38.025 to 37.95 wasn't a surprise, but Diab's teammate Maia Lee scoring a 9.55 on vault certainly was a big one.
Lee, who recently came back from an ACL injury, hadn't vaulted in a meet since the Mari-Rae Sopper Invitational at Fremd on Jan. 13.
"For her to come back after an ACL injury and give us that kind of an emotional lift was enormous for us," Fuentes said. "I can't speak enough about her and the others. For Maddie to keep everyone calm here and to be there at the end and Katherine Hoban to go up and give us a start like on beam with a big score was huge."
And they're not done.
"It's going to be really exciting knowing where we are right now and where we can finish," Maddie Diab said. "Winning the all-around was a nice bonus, but I was really just trying to do as much as I could for the team and now we'd love to improve our team score and to solidify first place."
Ramirez finished in fourth in the all-around with a 37.575 and Anna Diab was seventh with a 37.125 for the Hilltoppers.
Competing at state for the first time in program history, Wheaton Warrenville co-op finished its season by taking eighth place with a 143.235. Jamie LaBue qualified on vault with a 9.675 and on beam with a 9.375, which tied for the second-highest score.
Glenbard East's Kali Kartheiser took eighth place in the all-around with a 37.075. She also advanced on bars with a 9.4. The Rams' talented youth made a statement as fellow freshman Rebecca Honig had a 9.3 on vault and 9.1 on floor and junior Sierra Olson scored a 9.2 on vault.
Neuqua Valley's Jane Riehs was 27th in the all-around and qualified on beam with a 9.225.
Lake Park senior Kelly Zehnder competed for the final time with a 9.125 on floor. Glenbard North freshman Sarah Ozeki had an 8.75 on floor and Naperville North freshman Kelsey Sumser netted a 9.3 on vault.
"I was really happy with my performance and tried to do the best vault that I could," Sumser said. "I didn't expect to make it here, so making it was awesome so I'm so happy I was able to experience this."
Waubonsie Valley senior Melissa Martin was the 60th and final competitor on beam and overall and tied for 16th with a 9.175.
"The whole meet was me just enjoying the girls competing and watching all the cool stuff they do and then the next think you know I had to warm up and started to freak out a bit," Martin said. "To get to state has been a goal of mine since sophomore year, and once I got my score I knew I had a decent chance to get here, and here I am."