The Oswego Co-op girls gymnastics team has enjoyed the pleasure, comfort and familiarity of hosting a regional the past two seasons.
The team wasn’t afforded that same luxury on Wednesday as it traveled to the Naperville North regional, where its biggest competition came from the host Huskies.
Oswego fell short of winning its third consecutive regional as the Huskies cruised to the title with a total of 138.3. Oswego was second with a 133.975 and followed by Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley Co-op’s 124.7 and Hinsdale South’s 106.95.
“We’d been home so much for the last few weeks so this was a little different,” Oswego coach Sarah Dugan said. “I was really proud of them. They started out strong on bars and carried it all through the meet.”
Bars plagued the Huskies as they only scored a 31, but they did plenty of good things in the other three events to secure the victory.
“It’s been a rough spot for us throughout the season so it wasn’t surprising but still not an excuse for our performance,” Huskies senior Allie Pecorin said. “But as a senior I was happy to see how we took a negative and turned it around on beam and floor.”
Pecorin took fifth on bars with a 7.725 while Oswego’s Alayna Dieter won with an 8.
The Huskies were good, but inconsistent. While they collectively only had a 31 on bars they rallied for an impressive 37.1 on floor.
Michaela Robert, Erika Climo and Anneli Kawaoka finished 1-2-3 on floor with a 9.575, 9.425 and 9.3 for the winners.
“For being this far in the season we wanted to do better, but seeing how we came back on floor was a good sign,” Climo said. “I think it gives us momentum heading into sectional. We just have to start stronger there than we did tonight.”
Kawaoka won the all-around with a 36.1 and had top honors on beam with a 9.575 and vault with a 9.525.
“We were down after bars but Stano (coach Chris Stanicek) talked to us and picked us up,” Kawaoka said. “We were good then for the most part for the rest of the meet.”
Robert was second in the all-around with a 35.3.
Dieter (33.65), and sophomores Alexis Stamas (33.325) and Alecia Sahatdjian (32.425) finished 3-4-5 in the all-around for Oswego to advance to next Wednesday’s Hinsdale Central sectional.
“All three of us going was the highlight of the night,” Dieter said. “It was a pretty good meet.”
