Oswego co-op gymnastics wins third straight regional title, eyes first state appearance in 23 years

Oswego’s Sam Phillip and her sister Kylie Phillip, a 2023 graduate, helped sell the awesomeness of the Oswego co-op girls gymnastics team to Ava Sullivan two years ago. The two seniors have accompanied each other individually at state representing their team ever since.

Word continued to spread about the team. Eventually it got to senior Veda Haake.

With those three all-arounders leading the way this winter, Oswego is en route to perhaps its first state appearance in 23 years. The Wanthers made a strong statement that they’re determined to get to Palatine, winning Wednesday night’s Oswego regional by double digits and those three finishing as the top three all-arounders.

The Wanthers scored 143.3 points to runner-up Hinsdale Central’s 132.225, winning their third consecutive regional.

“Our scores obviously weren’t the best tonight, but still getting 143 is a big step forward for us,” Phillip said. “And that’s not even the best we can do. We’re excited to show what we can do at sectionals. We’re all ready for sectionals.”

The sectional is next Monday at Hinsdale Central.

Phillip won the all-around with a 36.85 as well as vault (9.4), bars (9.1) and floor (9.45).

Haake was third in the all-around with a 35.75. She won beam (9.275).

“Have done club my whole entire life, I’ve had a lot of people that I know that have done high school gymnastics and absolutely loved it,” she said. “So they’ve always told me I should come do it, so this year I was like, ‘you know what, let’s just try it out.’ And so I came during the summer to come practice with them and loved all of them and I just decided to stay.”

She’s been the perfect fit, adding a third scorer to the lineup that can hit 36 and higher.

“I didn’t know who Veda was, I didn’t know anything about her,” Phillip said. “I’m so glad she came on this team. She is such a big help to this team, seriously.”

Haake feels right at home.

“It’s even better than I thought it was going to be,” she said. “It’s a great environment. It’s so different than club was, in a good way.”

Sullivan was second in the all-around with a 36.35.

“It was a little rocky meet, but that’s ok, everything turned out well,” she said. “It worked out well. I think we picked the energy back up on the floor after a bit of a rocky beam. And not all meets are going to be perfect. We just got to roll with it.”

They’re rolling into the one that really matters.

“We are so so excited,” Sullivan said. “We’re really looking forward to sectionals on Monday. It’s going to be a big meet, it’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ve being doing well so far, pretty consistent scoring-wise, so it’s looking good.”

Junior Fran Valenti, a three-eventer, was third on vault (8.8) and fifth on floor (8.5) and gave the team an 8.225 on beam. Sophomore Alenna Holden contributed an 8.425 on bars.

“Honestly, I couldn’t be more content with the girls that I have on this team than I am,” Wanthers coach Michael Borge said. “There were a lot of great performances tonight, but more importantly, there are really good people behind those performances. I’m incredibly excited to see them finish well and do something that Oswego gymnastics hasn’t done in a generation.”

Hinsdale Central junior Lane Inabnit took third on floor (9) and tied for second on beam (9.075).

“I was impressed by floor because I know a lot of the people here, especially Oswego, are really good on floor,” Inabnit said. “It’s never been my main event so I was happy with that.”

She’s happy that senior Eric Driscoll is joining her at sectionals. Driscoll took fourth on bars (8.5), fifth on vault (8.65) and fourth in the all-around (33.875).

“With the added pressure I was freaking out a bit, and I had some rough warmups, too,” Driscoll said. “So it was nice to let that not get into the actual competition and then I was kind of scared that it could be my last floor routine and now I don’t have to worry about that.”

Naperville North freshman Madi Mourngey took fifth in the all-around (33.575) and on beam (8.525).