Gymnastics: York second at Palatine Invitational

It was a pretty close battle for the championship of the 37th Annual Palatine Invitational Saturday, but for the sixth time in seven years it was the Glenbrook South girls gymnastics team that rose to the top of the powerful eight-team field again when all was said and done.

The Titans were able to put together a consistent performance from start to finish to hold off runner-up York by a final score of 138.55 to 137.175 as the Dukes had to pull a key all-arounder out of their lineup due to an injury in warmups.

Libertyville posted a season-high mark of 135.475 points to take home the third-place trophy while Prospect edged the host Pirates 133.85 to 133.45 for fourth place. Hinsdale South/Lemont Co-op nipped Naperville North 125.8 to 125.75 for sixth place.

Palatine sophomore Jolee Waddington (9.33 average) won the all-around competition over York runner-up Angela Stangarone (9.31 average) by a narrow 37.3 to 37.25 score.

Prospect’s Megan Goumas (35.55 points) took fourth place overall while York’s Melania Veselovsky (35.4) tied for fifth overall.

“We did lose one of our key all-arounders (Daniella Chavez) in warmups due to an injury, and just to play it safe I pulled her,” said York coach Ashley Samata, whose team had a meet-high 34.225 points on vault. “And regardless of the outcome they still did a great job, they did what they needed to do, we had a strong finish, and that’s all I could ask for.”

Libertyville also had to pull all-arounder Madison Hughes from its lineup due to an injury. But the Wildcats were able to piece together a strong team performance behind Maya Duffy (10th overall), Kenzie Tyrrell, Alyssa Levy, Ella Cobb, Corinne Biedermann, and Ally Humbert to reach their top team score.

“I thought we looked great. We had an injury so we had to pull her (Hughes) from the all-around,” said Libertyville coach Tiffany Owens. “Kenzie (Tyrrell) looked fantastic, she’s been working really hard, and she did great on floor exercise and beam.”

Prospect also hit a season-high score with Goumas getting great support from Annika Dolney, Ava Boesen, and Meghan Smith.

“We had a couple of falls on beam, but other than that it was a good meet,” said Prospect coach Monica Donner. “Floor exercise and vault were our best events, and it was a huge jump from our previous score of 126.”

York’s Hayley Schiltz placed seventh overall followed by Naperville North’s Erin Arnold in eighth, and Hinsdale South’s Emma Glashin in 11th.

“We tried some new stuff here and there, and it was a good invite too with some great teams here,” said Palatine coach Terry Theobald. “Jolee went 37.3 so that was awesome, and floor exercise and bars were her best events.”

Waddington won uneven bars (9.3) and balance beam (9.2) while Stangarone won floor exercise (9.55) and vault (9.5).

“My best event was probably floor exercise (second-place 9.5) today and I had all of my teammates there to support me which was really nice,” said Waddington. “It was nice to finally stick my double (on uneven bars), I’ve been working on it a lot in practice so that hard work has paid off. I’m just grateful to have the support of my teammates, that’s very special to me.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20231216/girls-gymnastics/glenbrook-south-wins-again-at-palatine/