Glenbard West wins seventh straight Silver title
Sophomore Janelle Gama and her Glenbard West girls gymnastics teammates have become used to team success.
Individually, after back-to-back state titles in 2018-19, the Hilltoppers usually received their first-place finishes from 2021 graduate Anna Diab, including all five titles at last season's West Suburban Conference Silver Division Meet and four in 2020.
"She was really consistent," Gama said. "One thing I really learned from her was to really be confident and to try to stay calm and try not to freak out because that's when you do your best."
On Saturday, Gama and junior Skylar Oh enjoyed their first individual Silver titles while the Hilltoppers calmly extended their unprecedented streak of consecutive overall Silver titles to seven by winning the Silver Meet at Hinsdale Central.
The Hilltoppers (143.00 points) were comfortably ahead of Oak Park-River Forest (133.725) and Hinsdale Central (133.325), York (130.975) and Lyons Township (128.05).
Oh won floor exercise (9.3) and Gama shared first on balance beam with Hinsdale Central senior Annette Sommers (9.0). Hinsdale Central senior Kelly Klobach swept all-around (36.425), vault (9.675) and uneven parallel bars (9.075).
Glenbard West seniors Alina Bhagwakar and Meagan McNamara and juniors Sammy Hopper, Autumn White and Brooklyn Ford also earned top-five individual medals.
Hopper was second in all-around (36.00) and vault (9.35). Bhagwakar was second on uneven bars (8.85).
"It's good because last year we could rely on Anna and this year we can't," Oh said. "It means all of us stepped up and worked very hard so we could win this."
Besides that, Glenbard West coach Carlos Fuentes felt the team hit all 20 of its routines for the second straight meet with regionals coming Wednesday.
"We're extremely proud of the consistency of the program year after year with different sets of athletes. It's not easy to win a conference championship so seven in a row is special for us," Fuentes said.
For example, Oh usually is strongest on uneven bars but sat out the event because of injury.
"I'm really happy about (floor) because I wouldn't say floor is my strongest event," Oh said. "(That) shows how much I've improved on that event. I've really tried to make all of my passes consistent."
Completing 2-3-4 Glenbard West finishes were McNamara (9.275) and Gama (9.15) on vault and Ford (8.75) and Hopper (8.625) on uneven bars.
A master of beam, Diab would have enjoyed seeing Gama followed by White third (8.95) and Hopper sharing fourth (8.75). Gama also was third in all-around (35.70) and tied for fourth on floor (9.0).
"Anna really showed confidence can really help with our beam routines," Gama said.
The only person besides Diab to win a conference title the past two seasons was 2020 Hinsdale Central graduate Caroline Klobach, Kelly's sister who also captured vault.
"There's quite a family feud (with the Diabs)," Klobach said laughing.
"It does feel really good (winning three). My (layout Yurchenko) vault was probably my best vault of the season and I had my best floor."
Sommers, third in all-around as a freshman, missed the 2021 meet with her back injury.
"I'm really happy I decided to come back for this season," Sommers said. "Our names go up in the (practice) gym on the wall so we're excited about that for sure."
York senior Martha Miklyukh continued her best season by taking third on floor (personal-best 9.2), fourth in all-around (34.35) and tying for fifth on uneven bars (8.5).
In her fourth Silver Meet, Miklyukh's previous best finish was 13th.
"I'm totally surprised. My back is feeling it but all events are hitting now," Miklyukh said. "My floor got a lot better. I upgraded my passes and it got clean and I added a ton of bonus."
LT junior Annmarie Holmes shared fourth on floor (9.0) and tied for sixth on beam with a fall.
"I was really proud of that (floor) routine. I hit all of my tumbling passes," Holmes said.
York senior state candidate Maryalice Shockey broke her left ankle on a beam dismount at practice Thursday and is out for the postseason. LT's Emily Tucker and Hinsdale Central's Charlotte French were injured during Saturday's warmups but hope to return for regionals.