Story posted Friday, February 5, 2010
Knights Crowned At Regional
It was the upstart Maine South Hawks against the established Prospect Knights at the Prospect girls gymnastics sectional meet Tuesday night.
It was a battle of two conference champions, and it was as close as expected.
In the end, Prospect's outstanding floor exercise performance carried it to a narrow 140.225-139.750 win. The Knights will advance to the Schaumburg sectional next week automatically, and Maine South and Wheeling advance as at-large teams.
It was Lauren Johnson and Katie Colmone for Prospect against Paula Papaioannou and Jamie Brocker for South, with Amy Burke of Wheeling getting in some licks in the all-around competition.
Johnson bounced back from an average performance at the Mid Suburban League conference meet last week by finishing third in the all-around, with Colmone fourth. Johnson won balance beam (9.350), tied for third on vault (9.175), and fourth on bars (8.75). Colmone won vault (9.350), took second on bars (9.225), and placed fourth on floor (9.150).
For South, Papaioannou dominated the scoring as the Hawks came close to pulling off their second straight victory after tying with two other teams for its first conference championship in girls gymnastics last week. She took first in the all-around with a score of 37.050, adding a first on bars (9.350), second on beam (9.325), and third on vault (9.175) and floor (9.2).
Brocker won floor (9.450). That score, plus the Hawks' season-high 139.750 regional score, should go a long way to give them a ton of team motivation at next week's Schaumburg sectional.
Burke took second in the all-around and won second places on vault (9.325) and floor (9.250). She was third on bars (8.975) and fourth on beam (8.850).
This was the fourth of seven regionals involving area teams this week.
* At Schaumburg, the host Saxons won as Ashley Miller won three events. Hersey's Haley Scott and Katie Dewar advanced to the sectional with top-five finishes on vault and floor.
* At Hinsdale Central, Leyden scored 134.850 points to advance as an at-large team. The Eagles were led by Khrystyna Lychagina, who won the all-around and two events, and had two other top-five finishes. Eagles Jenna Urbaniak and Elizabeth Reed, along with Lychagina, also qualified to advance as individuals.
As of this writing, regionals yet to be held that involved area teams were at Fremd, Palatine, and Carmel this week. So far, Prospect, Maine South, Wheeling, and Leyden have advanced to sectionals as teams.
Sectionals are next week at Schaumburg Feb. 8, Stevenson Feb. 9, Hinsdale Central Feb. 10, and Glenbard West Feb. 11.
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