Glenbard West excels at York invite

Audrey Harrington may not be the biggest name on Glenbard West's roster, but the Hilltoppers wouldn't be where they're at right now if it wasn't for gymnasts like her.

Harrington was not at the top of the leaderboard in any of the four events during Saturday's York Invite, but the Hilltoppers needed all of her clutch scores to win with 144 points.

Lincoln-Way co-op was the runner-up with a 140.725, slipping just past District 230 co-op's 140.55.

"The athletes graduate but the tradition doesn't," Hilltoppers coach Carlos Fuentes said. "Brooklyn Ford, Audrey Harrington, Skylar Oh and so many of these girls are stepping into really big roles and have accepted the challenge of being a Glenbard West gymnast. There's a lot of prestige to it and a lot of pressure as well to be able to execute."

Harrington finished fifth in the all-around with a 35.2 and the Hilltoppers used her scores in all four events, including bars, where she tied teammate Haley Trippel.

"Coming in any meet I'm always super nervous and never know how it's going to end," Harrington said. "But after each event I was more and more glad with my performance because I ended up hitting 4-for-4. It ended up being a really good meet not only for me, but for the whole team as well."

Alina Bhagwakar tied Anna Diab for third on vault while Diab won beam and floor, took second on bars and earned the all-around title with a 37.825.

"(Anna's) super consistent with all these skills, such huge skills that I could never do, this year at least," Harrington said. "Seeing how well she does, it pushes everybody else, with how good her form is and how consistent she is."

Ford added three key team scores, Trippel contributed a pair to the team score while Meg McNamara delivered on vault and Skylar Oh did the same on floor as the Hilltoppers hit on 18-of-20 routines.

"What an incredibly talented physical team we have this year as well as mentally," Fuentes said. "I'm extremely proud of all of them with how they're competing over and over and over again."

Short-handed Lake Park found itself situated in fifth place with a 136.4. That did nothing to diminish Olivia Perez's performance on floor, which earned her fourth place with a 9.25.

"It's been getting progressively better all season," she said. "I think our team in general has worked to put an emphasis on floor because it keeps the artistic in gymnastics, is very dancey and is lots of fun, and I've worked very hard to get better at it."

Upon completion, Perez knew her routine was good, but wasn't sure if it was good enough to be among the top finishers.

"I knew it was a pretty solid routine but didn't know about the score," she said. "It was very cool, especially with my whole team here supporting me and screaming my name and keeping me happy."

York (132.45), Naperville North (132.275), Glenbard West's JV team (130.475) and Hinsdale Central (130.225) also competed.

Conant coach Anthony Avella was out sick and the Cougars were without Lea Faouaz, but still managed to snag fourth place with a 138.25.

Sofia Presta led the way, taking third in the all-around with a 35.65. Danielle Smith had the team's top finish, taking fourth on beam with Presta right behind her. Presta, Julia Betts and Smith also finished 6-7-8 on vault.

"Today we were missing Lea (Faouaz), who went home sick and that was a big struggle to fill her spots," Smith said. "But if we all come out strong and hit our routines we'll be able to do very well (in conference and the postseason)."

As the last big invite of the season, typically the York Invite is viewed as a tuneup for conference meets and regionals. That's pretty much how the Cougars are looking at it with their conference meet on Wednesday at Barrington.

"I think we're all overall really excited because this will be one of the last meets for all of us together," Betts said. "Our energy is going to be really up and we've been preparing for so much regardless of how today went. We've got to look at the whole season and our consistency and we're going to do our best and have fun."