Alayna Dieter doesn’t know if she’ll retire from gymnastics after she graduates this spring, so she’s doing her best to extend her career as long as she can.
The Oswego co-op senior assured herself of at least another week of practice — as well as one more meet — by qualifying for the IHSA state finals on Feb. 20-21. She tied for fourth place on beam with a 9.15 during Wednesday’s Hinsdale Central Sectional.
“I didn’t want this to be my last meet so that really motivated me,” she said. “I just tried to go out there and do the best that I could, and after doing gymnastics for so many years, I wanted that to show.”
She’s always had success on beam, but never enough to get to state.
“I’m still in a bit of shock because I wasn’t expecting to make it,” she said. “I knew I had the ability to get the score, but I was nervous because just one fall can ruin it. So I just did my best to stick it, and once they called my name, I was very happy.”
Dieter became the first Oswego co-op gymnast to advance to state since Kyla Price in 2011.
“It’s been a while, so this is very exciting,” Oswego co-op coach Sarah Dugan said. “Our team is so well rounded this year that we end up just missing the cutoff scores.”
Interestingly, Dieter has been a far more complete gymnast this winter. In prior years she was more prone to focus on one or two events, but this year she put in a lot of hours in each event, increased her start values and contributed as an all-arounder.
“Before we even had our first practice I knew I had to try to do my best in every event, because it was going to be my senior year,” she said. “I’ve been focusing really hard on every single event.”
Dieter finished tied for 13th place in the all-around with a 35.075. That wasn’t enough to qualify for state so she can now turn her entire focus over to her beam routine.
“She’s already increased some of her jumps this year so that’s added some difficulty and increased her value by a couple of tenths,” Dugan said. “We haven’t talked about adding anything else new (for state) but that’s not closed for discussion.”
Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley co-op sophomore Claire Samojedny will have to test her patience to see if she will qualify for state on bars after taking sixth place with a 9.2. The top five finishers automatically qualify so she’ll have to wait until Thursday’s Lake Park sectional is completed to see if her score is worthy of an at-large berth.
Samojedny has been battling a thigh injury for the past two weeks, and fell on vault and floor to begin the meet. She was able to put the tough start behind her though and shine on bars.
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“It was a surprise, really, because her first two events were not so good,” Waubonsie Valley/Metea Valley co-op coach Sarah Thompson said. “I give her a lot of credit for fighting to turn things around on bars.”
The cutoff score on bars is currently 9.
Chris R. Walker is a freelance writer.