PALATINE – DeKalb co-op started well with strong uneven bars routines and finished with quality performances on the vault.
In between, there were solid floor exercise routines as well. But the unforgiving balance beam – on which the Barbs had a couple of falls – knocked them out of repeating for a team trophy at the IHSA Girls Gymnastics State Meet on Friday at Palatine High School.
After the first day, DeKalb co-op, which co-ops with Sycamore, is in fourth place in team scores with 142.675, behind Downers Grove South (145.5), Vernon Hills (144.9) and Geneva (143.4).
Team scores can improve with competitors’ scores in Saturday’s finals, but the Barbs have too much to make up with only Eden Russell in the finals of the vault and bars.
“We overall did pretty well, but we could have done better and have done better this season,” said Leah Benson, a senior at Sycamore. “Beam especially. We had some falls. That’s not exactly what we came here to do. It was a little disappointing.”
DeKalb co-op coach Andy Morreale thought his team could have grabbed another third-place trophy like last year.
“All in all, it was still one of our better meets,” Morreale said. “I don’t think we were good enough for first or second. We sure could have got that third-place spot, though.
“But after beam we came back strong on the next two, so we never gave up. We did what we were capable of. On beam, we just had a couple of dumb mistakes. We made the hard stuff and missed the easy things. You have to focus on everything.”
Russell advanced in the vault, where she was fifth with a 9.65 and on bars, where she tied for eighth with 9.25.
Benson was in the bars finals until the final competitor of the day, Leyden’s Sefora Hanc, scored 9.25 to tie with Russell and Fremd’s Abby Gallicho. Benson scored 9.225.
“I was really proud of myself,” said Russell, a senior at DeKalb. “On bars, my scores have been better, but I had a good routine. Hitting my second handstand was good, and I hit the landing. I was so excited for my vault.”
Russell did a Yurchenko pike on her first vault, then scored higher with a Yurchenko layout on the second.
DeKalb co-op’s Annabella Simpson, a junior at Sycamore, scored 36.525 to finish 11th all-around.
“We had a couple falls on beam, but we pulled through and did our best,” Simpson said. “I’m proud of how I did. I was very consistent. I definitely think I could have done better, but I did the best I could. I was very happy with everything that happened.”