Geneva, St. Charles co-op both find bright spots
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Maddie Kramer scored a career-best 9.2 on floor exercise for St. Charles co-op during its DuKane Conference meet at Geneva, but Olivia Takesue closed the meet with a personal-best 9.4 to lead the Vikings to a 136.85 to 133.9 victory.
“It was one of my better routines,” Takesue said. “I wasn't expecting it to be that high so it was super exciting.”
The Vikings have put on a show on floor in the cozy Mack Olson gym for years, and Wednesday was no different.
Kate Nitschke and Katie Beitzel each contributed an 8.8, Caitlin Cook scored an 8.95 and Kathryn Wendt earned a 9.1 behind Takesue who acknowledged that she was inspired by the performance of her teammates that she followed.
“I think I just get excited watching everyone else and seeing everyone doing super well,” Takesue said. “It just kind of motivates me to do even better, and that was my highest score ever on floor.”
So much focus is given to top scores, but it can't be forgotten that a team adds four scores per event. Using one of those 8.8s was big and part of Geneva's work at trying to always improve.
“That was my highest score on floor so that's exciting,” Beitzel said. “But I was most happy with going for my giants on bars. I hadn't done that in a while. I didn't make it, but I was excited to try.”
Takesue was the lone all-arounder for the Vikings, winning with a 34.3 while Kramer had a 33.5 and Ashley Olea added a 32.4 for St. Charles co-op.
Takesue also tied teammates Caitlin Cook, Kelsey Marschitz and St. Charles co-op's Jennifer Nickel for top honors on vault with an 8.6.
The Vikings trailed midway through the meet by a single point, but finished strong on beam and floor with Nitschke, Takesue and Wendt snagging the top three places on beam with a 9.1, 9.0 and 8.9 respectively, while Maura Anderson offered a solid 8.5.
St. Charles co-op may have been looking up at Geneva at the end of the meet, but it left satisfied with its effort and finish, surpassing its previous season high by more than three points.
“Easily our highest score of the season,” St. Charles co-op coach Natalie Przybylski said. “Floor was amazing, vault was good and bars was strong. We've been struggling on beam, so we just need to pick it up on beam, but other than that we were good.”
Sydney Kamin, who basically missed all of her sophomore season due to an injury, has been huge this year in her return and she once again shined on bars, winning with an 8.8.
“Every since I was little, even as a Level 3 and Level 4, I've excelled at bars,” she said. “I don't know why. Some probably think I'm crazy.”
Kramer certainly doesn't think so as she finished right behind her with an 8.1, but that paled in comparison to her amazing effort on floor.
“Getting a 9 for the first time during my senior year is really exciting,” she said. “It was definitely a big moment. I definitely added more jumps to it, and for this one, I just went all out. I was kind of surprised with the result, but at the same time, it was my hard work paying off.”