Girls gymnastics: Prairie Ridge co-op’s Gabby Riley, Maria Kakish advance to state finals

PALATINE – Prairie Ridge co-op’s Gabby Riley proved to be as masterful at the mental part of gymnastics as she is at the physical aspects.

Riley was unable to connect on a difficult uneven bars skill, which knocked her out of contention for the all-around state title at the IHSA Girls Gymnastics State Meet Friday at Palatine High School.

But a little while later, Riley bounced back to nail her balance beam routine and qualify for Saturday’s finals with a 9.35. Riley and teammate Maria Kakish both scored 9.55 on their vaults and qualified for that event’s finals.

The top 10 scores from Friday’s preliminaries (with ties) advance to Saturday for the finals, with all competitors starting over.

“I did really well on beam. It’s become a really fun event for me and I stayed calm up there,” said Riley, a senior at Cary-Grove. “I thought it was good. (On Saturday), I’ll probably do my double-back dismount so then I’ll get a higher start value. It’s hard so I don’t do it all the time.”

The double-back flip in tuck position will replace a single back flip in layout. Riley should be in contention for the state title in that event, as Libertyville’s Anna Becker (9.525) was the only competitor with a higher qualifying score.

Prairie Ridge head coach Lexi Redmond missed the meet to attend a family funeral. Wolves assistant coach Shawn Riley, Gabby’s father, filled in as coach on Friday.

Gabby Riley tried a Maloney in her bars routine, something she plans on using at Kent State next year. In that move, she swings around the lower bar while gripping with her toes, facing away from the high bar, then releases to catch the high bar. In the Stevenson Sectional and again Friday, she came up just short of the high bar and fell.

“It’s a new skill for her. She’s still developing it. When she hits it, it’s great. It doesn’t always have the timing right now,” Shawn Riley said. “We talked about maybe changing it and she said, ‘I’m going to win or die with this routine, because this is the routine I’m going forward with.’ I respect the fact that she wants to go for it at the highest level that she can.

“She’s never wanted to water down any of her routines and she’s upgraded a lot of her stuff for college. Her idea is she wants to be the best and give it her all. She doesn’t want to do the easy things to get a better score. She wants to do the hardest things she can do and become the best gymnast she can be. And show the skills she’s worked this time to get.”

Riley finished eighth in the all-around, which finished on Friday, at 36.725. She won the all-around as a freshman and was fourth last year. Riley competed a Jaeger on bars last year, where she did a reverse swing on the high bar, released, flipped and regrabbed the bar.

“I came off the low bar a little early and I wasn’t far enough to catch the high bar,” Riley said. “It’s harder than what I did last year. It’s really frustrating. It’s a new skill, I’m still trying to learn it.”

Riley and Kakish, a sophomore from Crystal Lake Central, both performed a Yurchenko layout on the vault and tied for the final qualifying spot.

Kakish, in her first high school state meet, was not expecting to qualify.

“I went into it not doing great. I’ve been vaulting all week and they haven’t been great, so I didn’t expect to land it, but I did,” Kakish said. “It was my second attempt, I stuck the landing and that helped my score.

“I was only landing half of them and I would land on my face on the rest of them. That’s really good. I didn’t think I was going to make it at all. I was really happy.”

Shawn Riley saw something different in practices from Kakish.

“Maria’s vault was great. Her last two weeks of practice on vault has leaps and bounds of improvement,” he said. “She’s confident in what she’s doing and let go of that nervousness and just went for it.

“Watching across the gym, she’s a little tougher on herself. She can’t see what she’s doing. It’s slowly progressed and this week especially training for only one event. She’s been real focused on that. There’s no expectation, just go for it.”