PR wants more

Prairie Ridge's Kali Herman vaults during Monday's IHSA Deerfield Regional at Deerfield High School. (Jeff Krage – For the Northwest Herald)

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

DEERFIELD – Prairie Ridge took a couple of valuable things home from the IHSA Deerfield Girls Gymnastics Regional on Monday.

One was a regional plaque. The other – motivation – was less tangible.

Mistakes cost the Wolves’ points in some events, points they will need in the future to advance from the Stevenson Sectional on Feb. 9.

“It wasn’t our best meet as a team, but we got the job done,” Prairie Ridge junior Molly Sandquist said. “And we finished well on floor (exercise), so that was good. We just can’t fall, that’s what gets us.”

Jenny Covers, the defending all-around state champion, tied for second in the all-around with 37.3 points after falling on the balance beam and the uneven parallel bars. Covers was competing in all-around for the first time in three weeks after suffering a bruise on her left heel.

“It was OK, mostly good except for a couple of falls, but you have to take it,” said Covers, who tied with Gurnee Warren’s Kelci Schulz for second behind Warren’s Kim Gotlund (37.5).

Covers also suffered a scary fall on the uneven bars while attempting a Jaeger, a maneuver in which she lets go of the high bar, twists then regrabs the bar.

“I have to wait a little longer (to let go),” she said.

Prairie Ridge finished at 145.175 to win the regional. Warren was second at 144.4.

Covers advanced in all four events and all-around with top-five finishes in each. Kali Herman automatically qualified in the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and all-around. Taylor Weber qualified in the vault and floor exercise, and Sandquist made it on the uneven bars.

The Wolves likely will receive more at-large berths after the four regionals feeding into Stevenson are completed. The top 12 performances not in top fives of the four regionals receive at-large berths.

“Our goal here was just to qualify for sectional,” Prairie Ridge coach Lee Battaglia said. “We had 145, but we lost a point on Jenny’s falls. I was still pleased with her for not having competed all-around in three weeks. We had a lot of mistakes, and they all know that.”

The meet offered a nice competition between Covers and Gotlund, who was the all-around state runner-up in 2008 and competed in club gymnastics last season. Neither was at her best, as Gotlund suffered two falls on tumbling passes in her floor exercise routine.

“I tried not to worry about anything else and focus on my routines,” said Gotlund, a senior who will compete at Northern Illinois next season. “I was disappointed that I fell, but then I came back and stayed on the beam.”

Three Prairie Ridge gymnasts fell on their beam routines, which will be critical in the next two weeks.

“We’re capable, if we hit our routines, of being right there with anybody,” Battaglia said. “The beam’s the one we have to stay on. We know we can do better.”