PR in trophy hunt

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PALATINE – Considering where Jenny Covers started her day at the IHSA Gymnastics State Meet, finishing third in the all-around was quite an accomplishment.

The Prairie Ridge junior was trying to defend her state all-around title, but fell on her first event, the uneven parallel bars, and scored only 8.975. It was an uphill battle from there, but Covers did all she could.

Gurnee Warren’s Kim Gotlund (38.275) and Addison Trail’s Alyssa Cruz (37.875) finished ahead of Covers (37.675), who qualified for today’s finals in the vault and floor exercise. Gotlund was the all-around runner-up two years ago.

“I’m pleased. I’m happy,” Covers said. “I know I could do better, I had a little mishap. I can take it OK.”

Covers leads the vault at 9.750 going into the finals. If no competitor eclipses that score, she will reclaim that state title. Competitors may gain points, but can’t lose points in the individual final events. They also may gain team points, which means Covers and teammates Molly Sandquist and Taylor Weber can improve the Wolves’ team standing today.

Finals start at 6:30 p.m. at Palatine High School. Carmel (146.975) leads the team standings, followed by Lyons (146.775), Fremd (145.925), Glenbard West (145.525) and Prairie Ridge (145.400).

The top three teams receive trophies, so the Wolves still are in contention.

“It’s remarkable,” Prairie Ridge coach Lee Battaglia said of Covers’ performance. “She misses the Pike Jaeger, and it’s hard to finish when you know you’re out of it right at the start. She finished strong.”

Covers completed the Pike Jaeger – a skill where she lets go of the high bar and does a full twist before regrabbing the bar – three times during warmups. But just like in the regional and sectional meets, Covers let go a split-second too early and fell to the mat face-first. She composed herself and finished with a double-layout dismount, one Battaglia said he had not seen another girl do at the state meet.

“I finished with an exclamation point,” Covers said. “It was kind of hard [after that]. You just get out and push the restart button.”

Covers’ beam score (9.500) would have placed her third going into the finals, but she did not qualify from sectionals on the bars or beam. She is in third place (9.450) in the floor exercise going into the finals.

Weber, a junior, scored 9.325 to qualify in floor exercise.

“I was really nervous about it, but that was the best floor routine I’ve ever done,” Weber said.

Weber tossed in a front-full, front-pike on her second tumbling pass to score more points and connected on the skill.

Sandquist headed into her first state meet with modest expectations and was thrilled to tie for ninth (9.225) and make the balance beam finals.

“It’s exciting, I wasn’t really expecting to get to the finals or anything,” Weber said. “I’m really happy. Lee said, ‘Fight for everything, don’t take any easy falls.’ I almost fell on my leap series, but I thought about what he said and stayed on.”

The Wolves are competing as a team at state for the first time since 2002. It may take their very best routines, but they have a chance to move up.

“Our goal was to get here as a team,” Sandquist said. “Like Mrs. [Kathy] Covers said on the way over here, ‘Anything else is icing on the cake.’ We can’t be unhappy with ourselves.”