After a personal-best 9.275 on the uneven parallel bars to win regionals, Jan. 31, Lyons Township High School senior Emily Tucker couldn’t help but think about her last chance at reaching her first state meet during the Hinsdale Central Sectional on Monday.
Maybe even too much.
“I honestly was overthinking but at the same time I knew I could do it, my teammates knew I could do it, my coaches knew I could do it,” Tucker said. “They pushed me so I did the same thing I did at regionals. I kept my head high. I had a positive mindset. I just went for it and ended up sticking it.”
With help from her now comfortable double back flip dismount, Tucker landed with a slight step and scored a 9.2 to finish fourth and automatically advanced to the state preliminaries, Feb. 16 in Palatine, with a top-five sectional finish.
The all-arounder and fourth-year varsity gymnast had to wait until the final rotation to perform uneven bars.
“Bars is my favorite event, my last event and I did the best,” Tucker said. “Looking at the [leader] board, I saw fifth place was 8.9. I compared that to my regional score. I was like, ‘OK, I can easily do that.’”
“That’s awesome, especially since it’s her senior year. She’s been wanting to go to state so bad,” LTHS coach Brittany Milovanovic said. “It was a clean routine. [Her double back] was something she was never really confident in, but now I think she figured it out.”
As a team qualifier, the Lions finished fifth with 138.40 points, just shy of their 138.975, Jan. 31, the program’s highest score, which gave them their first regional title since the fifth-place 2015 state finishers.
LTHS juniors Emmy Bertucci, Dahlia Highland and Ava Hepokoski, freshman Brynn Krantz and senior Elle Rockrohr and Riverside Brookfield freshman Paige Phelan and sophomore Kayla Janusz also were individual sectional qualifiers.
Some of them may also reach state at-large by being among the 12 highest remaining scores from the four sectionals, which conclude Thursday.
Krantz tied for seventh on vault (9.15), Bertucci finished 10th on beam (8.95) and Bertucci and Rockrohr (8.8) tied for 11th on floor.
The last two years the beam at-large state cuts have been 8.9 and 8.875.
“I’m going to be stressed beyond belief [waiting],” said Bertucci, the LTHS Regional beam champion with a personal-best 9.35. “Whether I make [state] or not, I know I did amazing this year individually and the team did amazing together. I’m never disappointed. I’m always proud of us.”
Among other top-20 LTHS finishes, Bertucci (34.55), Krantz (34.375) and Highland (34.10) were 13th, 14th and 16th in all-around, Highland tied for 14th on vault (8.95) and tied for 16th on uneven bars (8.55), Krantz was 15th on floor (8.675) and Hepokoski (8.475) was 17th and Krantz (8.45) tied for 18th on beam.
RBHS girls
In their sectional debuts, Phelan was 16th on beam (8.5), tied for 25th on vault (8.375) and was 27th in all-around (32.95) and Janusz tied for 26th on vault (8.5).
“It motivated me a lot because I look at the other girls and what I can do to get up there and really make it to state next year. That’s the ultimate goal,” Janusz said.
RBHS coach Karyn Domzalski said Janusz landed one of her best handspring full vaults, which she learned this season. Phelan added two components on floor, most notably a front handspring and front layout tumbling pass, and made them both.
“Today was one of the best meets they’ve had,” Domzalski said. “We’ve been seeing [Janusz’s vaults] in the gym, but we really haven’t seen a good one like that at the meets.
“Paige just had one of her best meets. She was very tight and steady. We really changed up floor. And her bar routine was even cleaner than she’s done all season.”
The Bulldogs agreed they gained energy and confidence from a practice Saturday joined by their varsity teammates, even though their seasons had officially ended.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to make [the new tumbling pass] but I just went for it anyway. I tried not to overwork it [in warmups] and then I was just praying in competition that I would make it,” Phelan said.
“This really motivates me. Just being here was really fun and just seeing what it was like for next year.”