Red Devil Invitational

At Hinsdale Central

Saturday, Dec. 11

ALL STORIES BY BILL STONE

 Usher, Red Devils floor competition at invite

 If it seems as though junior Theresa Wojton has been associated with Stevenson gymnastics for several years, that’s because she has.
“I don’t remember not being a part of Stevenson gymnastics,” Wojton said.
The bond began as a child watching a family friend, followed by older sister Stephanie, now a sophomore competing at Winona (Minn.) State University. Competing together, they helped the Patriots win the 2009 state championship.
“I remember when I was little, I would always come to the meets,” Theresa Wojton said.
“Sometimes I couldn’t come to the meet because I had (club) practice, which would upset me because I just loved watching. I thought it was so much fun. The team support and everything about the team is what I love most. Watching my sister be on the team and then having me be on the team, I just have always known I need to be part of a team to do well.”
Wojton wants to be with this year’s team all the way to the state meet. On Saturday, her four top-10 finishes helped the Patriots take second at Hinsdale Central’s Red Devil Invitational with 142.625 points. The host Red Devils won with a season-high 145.025.
Stevenson junior and defending state balance beam champion Ali Castriano won all-around (36.325) and the uneven parallel bars (9.35). Wojton (35.425) and senior Carlie Dobkin (34.90) were fourth and sixth in all-around.
“We’re still in the progressive mode and trying to build up our team and we’re having a lot of fun doing it. We’re just working as hard as we can and just trying to learn new skills on our first score,” Wojton said. 
“I’m just trying to have fun and support the team. They’re like my best friends. It’s so much fun because I just love coming out here and having support from them and helping them achieve goals that they want. I just think it’s so much fun being out here with friends that you can trust and have fun with at any time.”
Dobkin was second on vault (9.4) to Hinsdale Central’s Kristen Grilli (9.5), Castriano also was fourth on floor exercise (9.35) and fifth on vault (9.225), senior Caitlin Pagano was fourth on balance beam (8.725), Wojton was fifth on floor (9.25) and sophomore Becca Foltman-Frank was fifth on uneven parallel bars (8.85).
Senior Amanda Holleb, sophomore Riley Trebilco, Dani Webb and Lauren Whalen also saw action.
It’s a group intent on returning to the state meet for the fourth time in the past five years after just missing last season with the 11th best sectional score (142.90) that missed the 144.475 cut. On Dec. 8, the Patriots scored a season high in beating returning eighth-place state finisher Lake Forest 147.85 to 146.75 in a key North Suburban Conference dual in Lincolnshire.
“So far it’s turning out to be a really fun year,” Stevenson coach Judy Harwood said. “It’s a hard-working group, they get along well. They feel like they have something to prove because they didn’t make (state).
“I’m real pleased with how hard they’re working. For them to not make it to state last year was bad. but they used it to motivate themselves. They worked really hard over the summertime and they look much better than they did last year. If we get it together, I feel like we could be better than last year. I think we could one of the top teams in state. We just kind of have to see after Christmas break how things are.”
The Patriots took a big blow just before last postseason when Pagano was sidelined after injuring her elbow just before the NSC Meet. She underwent two surgeries, the latter after it didn’t heal properly.
So far, Pagano only has been competing on beam because her routine doesn’t stress the elbow. She just received medical clearance to begin putting weight on the elbow.
“If she gets all the way back, it would be a real triumph. She’s having fun and she’s a senior so she needs to have whatever season she can have,” Harwood said. 
“If Caitlin makes it back, we’re pretty solid but right now we’re just merging on being  good team. I think we will become a pretty stonrg team but right now we’re just kind of laid back and having fun.”
Wojton and Foltman-Frank (9.2) tied for sixth on vault, Dobkin was sixth on beam (8.6) and eighth on the uneven parallel bars (8.75), and Wojton (8.475) and Castriano (8.4) was seventh and tied for 10th on beam.
Besides her scores and experience dating back to the American Academy of Gymnastics in Wheeling, Wojton hopes to help the team return to state by providing motivation at practice and during competition. She acknowledges that cheering from her teammates helps her to perform better.
“I need support so I support a lot of other people. I do exactly the same thing I want them to do. I’m always there for them,” Wojton said.
“OK, we really want to get there (to state). If we don’t, it’s OK. It happens, like last year. We just want to go because it’s so much fun. You see all of our friends there. We work out with each other. A lot of the girls from different schools go to the same club we do and so it’s much fun to see everyone and see how they’ve progressed throughout the year.”

 Wilkes up to new tricks for rebuilding OPRF 

 Oak Park-River Forest junior Morgan Wilkes enjoys learning gymnastics tricks.
Adding them to routines is, well, often the real trick.
“That’s the only bad thing,” Wilkes said. “That’s why (OPRF coach Kris Wright) won’t let me work on stuff immediately because she’s like, ‘How are you going to add this into your routine?’ and ‘How is this going to work?’ ”
Wilkes and senior Grace Ryan are the only two returnees from last year’s varsity and were the top performers for the Huskies at Saturday’s Red Devil Invitational at Hinsdale Central. OPRF (125.875 points) finished fifth of eight teams.
Wilkes was a top-10 finisher in all-around (9th, 32.65) and vault (9th, 8.85) and was her team’s top scorer on the uneven parallel bars (13th, 8.15). Ryan was a team-best 12th on balance beam (8.375).
Also seeing action were first-year senior Stephanie Osborne, a former cheerleader, junior first-year team member Annabelle Goldin-Mertdog, sophomores Nicole Pohlman and Emma Rosenbaum.
The Huskies graduated nine seniors from last year’s sectional-qualifying team. Also new is assistant coach Shayne Gavrick, replacing longtime assistant Wendy Kuenster, a former OPRF gymnast who recently gave birth to her fourth child.
“We’re kind of basing the team around (Wilkes and Ryan),” Wright said. “I feel it’s a rebuilding year. I’ve never used that term before, but I seriously feel like it’s an interesting mix of some really talented kids that need to be in the gym all year. But we’re doing well. It’s early in the season so we’re trying some new skills.”
Wilkes has her list of new skills. She’s working on a tuck Tsukahara vault, a toe on for uneven bars, a back on beam and a double twist for floor.
“I’m excited about beam. There’s so much stuff that I could get because I don’t really have that much now. You can only go up,” Wilkes said. “I think my highest goal is to get an 8.0 on beam and 9.0 on vault. I don’t know about (reaching) state, but I do want to make it to sectionals.”
“Morgan is just Miss Trickster. She would love to have a million tricks from yesterday. We’ve just got to take all of the tricks and put them into a routine that stays the same,” Wright said.
Ryan (30.875) and Pohlman (30.875) also competed as all-arounders, and Goldin-Mertdog (tied for 14th on uneven bars, 8.0) and Rosenbaum both contributed two routines that counted toward the team total.
A fourth-year varsity member, Ryan also has continued to emerge as a leader and should improve as the season progresses.
“I think Grace is feeling (the need to lead) the most. Grace is seeing it now and really trying hard to step it up,” Wright said. “Ability wise she is really is an amazing gymnast. She has a ton of skills in her back pocket that haven’t been around lately because you have to be in the gym 24/7. But I think she’s getting better. She’s trying very hard to step up. She’s being more focused in her practices.”
The underclassmen also are taking it upon themselves to support each other.
“I think we got close once (last year’s seniors) left. Even though I am kind of sad they left, I’m happy that we got closer together,” Wilkes said. “And Annabelle, she’s new, but I think she would be like a leader, too. She’s as good as Grace and I are.”

 Lake Park showing dividends from offseason work

 The numerous returning Lake Park gymnasts put in plenty of work together in the offseason.
That was especially true of floor exercise.
“We worked on floor a lot because we were down last year, and we got new tricks on every event. We worked on everything,” sophomore Kayla Goodwin said.
At Saturday’s Red Devil Invitational, floor turned out to be one of the Lancers’ best events, and it helped them to finish third in the eight-team field with a season-best 131.30 points.
Lake Park had the invite’s third-best team score on floor (35.95) and balance beam (32.25). Goodwin (9.2) and sophomore Jessica Lewis (9.15) enjoyed season-high scores on floor to finish seventh and eighth.
“There’s still more that I want to do and improve on, but I think (floor) was really good,” said Lewis, who was seventh in all-around (33.55). “It’s really exciting because it just shows that all of the hard work over the summer and throughout the season just pays off. (We’re happy) just that we got our highest score yet and shows that there’s more to come, hopefully. (A 140) would be really nice. Hopefully we can get there or either get in the higher 130s.”
Goodwin (32.55) and Sofia Tobin (31.15) also competed as all-arounders. Tobin added giants to her uneven parallel bars routine without a spot and finished 10th (8.4). Goodwin was eighth (8.45) and Shelby Butler tied for 10th (8.4) on balance beam, and Alexis Virella and Demi Goodwin tied for 14th on vault (8.6).
Tobin, Demi Goodwin, Kayla’s twin sister, and Butler also are sophomores and back from last year’s varsity.
“That’s our highest score of the year. We’ve been climbing about 0.5 every meet. We’re gradually climbing, putting things in one thing at a time,” first-year Lake Park coach Jake Luketin said.
“It was probably the best floor day that we had. We’ve been kind of struggling on floor and it all came together today. We’re still just building up on the other events. We’re hoping (to really benefit) in a couple of years. We’re building up a foundation for the future really.”
Luketin took over as head coach from Keith Matune, who will remain as the boys gymnastics head coach with Luketin as an assistant coach. Several Lake Park gymnasts trained over the summer at Palmer’s Gymnastics Club, where Luketin is a coach. They found out about his becoming head coach toward the end of the summer session.
“It’s definitely different from last year, but we actually worked with him over the summer so we already had a coach-gymnast relationship. It was really easy to transition into the season,” Lewis said. “We were all really excited because before then we didn’t have a coach. We were excited that we knew him, that we knew he would coach us well and that we had a coach.”
Kayla Goodwin, who is seven minutes older than Demi, continues to compete her tuck Tsukahara vault with a spot. She’s been working since the summer on adding a double full on floor, which could help her to qualify for state.
“I think that’s the key, to get it,” Kayla Goodwin said. “That (9.2) is really good. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that before. I was a little bit surprised and I thought I should get that score because I did a really good routine I thought. My round off flip flop full and a half (on my first pass), I think that was the best part. It fires me up.”
“I feel like if I really work hard and improve on all of my routines and get all of the skills and tricks that I want, I think that I could and as a team we could all qualify for sectionals and hopefully some of us, maybe even all of us, could go to state,” Lewis added.

 Sandburg/Stagg focused on healthy new year

Sandburg/Stagg co-op senior Alexa Messina and junior Sarah Mussallem soon will be competing together.
After Messina sat out the Mike Williams Big Purple Invitational at Downers Grove North Dec. 4 to rest her pulled quad muscle, Mussellem sat out Saturday’s Red Devil Invite with a stress fracture in her left fibula that hadn’t been stopping her from competing.
Junior and first-year high-school gymnast Lexsis Bailey also was limited to competing on the uneven parallel bars at Hinsdale Central because of a sprained ankle.
After the invite, Messina and Bailey were sitting side by side with big bags of ice over their right thigh and ankle, respectively.
“My sophomore year we had an awesome year. We placed second at state (as a team in 2009),” Messina said. “Last year we were rebuilding. This year we’re still rebuilding. We’re just trying to get everyone pushing farther to do what they have to do to get our scores up. I honestly think that after we take that winter break off of no matter and just having practice for three weeks, I think we’ll be able to come back in January and get our score up a lot.”
A 2010 individual state qualifier in all-around, vault, uneven bars and floor exercise, Messina quickly has regained form. In her return to floor exercise, she took third with a 9.55. She also was second on balance beam (8.95) and sixth on the uneven parallel bars (8.825). Another top-15 finisher for Sandburg/Stagg (12th, 7th, 122.10 points) was Bryanna Baez on vault (12th, 8.675).
In her return to action Dec. 8 against Andrew, Messina only competed uneven bars and beam.
“(At Hinsdale Central, beam and bars) didn’t go that well. I did floor for the first time and it actually went pretty well,” Messina said. “(Coach Kory Kronenberger) told me just water down your routines so you don’t get hurt. I watered down my floor routine a little bit but at the same time I want to be getting my scores up.
“I’m still not all the way back. I’m hoping to be fully back by the time we come back (from winter break).”
Mussallem was just as impressive at the Big Purple. Despite her stress fracture, Mussallem tied for fourth on vault (9.025) with a pike Tsukahara and also was eighth on beam (8.3) and had a team-high 7.675 on uneven bars without a dismount for her other two events. Bailey tied for ninth on beam (8.0).
“Whenever I vault, it’s so much pain but (at Downers North) it wasn’t that bad because I found a good mat to land on,” Mussallem said.
Unfortunately, Mussallem is used to the adversity. Also a standout soccer player and track competitor at Stagg, Mussallem broke her leg during her freshman gymnastics season playing indoor club soccer. Last gymnastics season, she endured three stress fractures but managed to be ready to compete in the postseason.
“It hurts a lot during soccer season right after gymnastics, and I’m used to playing through it. It helps me know when it’s too much and when I’m OK,” Mussallem said. “During practice, I’m mostly doing bars and stuff because it’s not as much pressure on my leg. During winter break, I’ll probably have some time to take off. It’ll give it time to rest.”
Messina first suffered her injury the second day of official practice, while Mussallem’s progressively got worse. During their team’s dual at Hinsdale Central Dec. 1, both competed on uneven bars but then had to scratch after enduring too much pain during vault.
“We’re just trying to get everyone healthy. It’s the hardest part, especially at the beginning of the season, making sure they stay healthy the whole season through,” Kronenberger said at the Big Purple Invite.
“We’re going to try and just keep (Mussallem) healthy as much as she can because she’s doing great. She works hard and is really dedicated. Usually at the beginning of the season, a lot of our girls get aches and pains. Hers is kind of an ongoing injury. She’s an athlete. She does sports all year round.”
Messina wears a brace around her right thigh to help subside the pain. A rehab regimen designed by a trainer at Sandburg also has helped.
“Last week I couldn’t even run and now I can run at 60 percent,” Messina said. “Last week I couldn’t even run 10 percent so it’s getting better. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing.”