https://vimeo.com/84048726
By Staff Writer John Conway
On Saturday, Jan. 11, Naperville North High School welcomed 11 area schools for the Naperville North Girls Gymnastics Invitational. The Huskies finished fifth of twelve teams in the meet, with a final score of 133.4.
The girls had strong routines throughout the day but they found their overall performance underwhelming. Head Coach Chris Stanicek hopes the girls can regain their focus moving forward.
“Right now, we have to get back into the gym,” Stanicek said. “Our key focus is going to be on consistency. We have the talent, and have the routines that we need, we just have to get consistent at hitting them.”
Prospect High School won the invite, with a score of 141.975. They were followed by Barrington, then Naperville Central. Between third and fifth place, there was only a 2-tenths point differential, bringing careless mistakes by each gymnast into perspective.
The Huskies started the meet with strong vault performances, placing third in the event. Junior Michaela Robert had a noteworthy performance for vault, taking the third place medal for her performance, with a score of 9.500.
“I think vault definitely went really well today,” Robert said. “It was nice starting off with a solid performance. Unfortunately, it didn’t carry through the meet.”
In the two following events, uneven parallel bars and balance beam, NNHS struggled, placing tenth on bars and seventh on beam. Even the star gymnasts of the team were frustrated by the events, and received costly deductions.
The team ended on a high note, placing third on floor exercise, with sophomore Anneli Kawaoka and sophomore Erika Climo both claiming top ten finishes for the event.
Overall, Robert hopes that her team’s consistency and morale will improve in the upcoming practices.
“We have so much potential,” Robert said. “So if we just work on [consistency and confidence], I think we are going to do really well, especially going into post season.”
