It was the last event of the Mundelein Sectional on Feb. 9 — the beam — that sunk the Carmel girls gymnastics team’s state hopes.
“We all had kind of a tough beam day,” sophomore Samantha Lococo said. “It was beam.”
Through three of the four events, Carmel was in good position to win the sectional and earn an automatic spot in this weekend’s state meet, to be held Friday and Saturday in Palatine. The Corsairs led the competition after the vault, uneven parallel bars and floor exercise, with a score of 107.550. Host Mundelein was close behind at 106.950, and Glenbrook South sat at 105.225.
But Carmel still had the beam. Only Mundelein, with a 35.050, had topped 35 points in the event. Corsairs coach Nicky Stroup said she felt her gymnasts were prepared. They weren’t completely free of anxiety, but they appeared calm and collected as they approached their beam routines.
“We seemed [to have] the normal amount of energy we carry into the gym,” Stroup said.
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The scores from sophomore Colleen Kadowaki, junior Antonia Durnil, freshman Kelly Gustafson and Lococo totaled 33.575. It was by far Carmel’s lowest event score of the meet.
Lococo said pre-routine nerves impacted the Corsairs’ scores. Stroup admitted the low scores reflected the team’s collective jitters.
“It was a little uncharacteristic of beam performances,” Stroup said. “It all came down to the dreaded beam.”
When Glenbrook South’s vault score of 37.400 was posted, the Titans’ 142.665 total surpassed Mundelein and Carmel for the sectional championship. Carmel ended up third (141.125) behind runner-up Mundelein (141.325).
While Carmel won’t be going to state as a team, Lococo qualified in the all-around. In her first season competing for the Corsairs, she had four top-three finishes at the sectional. Her 9.50 in the vault was good for third place behind runner-up McKenzie Kehr of Mundelein (9.55) and champion Emily Basara of Warren (9.70). Lococo’s 9.35 on the uneven parallel bars tied her for second place with Stevenson’s Elizabeth Shank. Kehr, with a 9.425, was champion.
Lococo was at her best in the floor exercise, where her 9.65 won. That propelled her to an all-around score of 37.000, good for third place behind second-place Kehr (37.325) and champion Basara (37.475).
“We are super excited to take [Lococo] as an all-arounder to state,” Stroup said.
“I’m going to use this meet to motivate myself,” Lococo said. “The team will still be there [for support], so we’ll have that dynamic.”
No other Corsairs qualified for state.
Although Carmel won’t compete for its sixth state title this year, a potentially prosperous future remains. All five sectional gymnasts are expected to return in 2015-16, along with sophomores Anna Oskowski and Samantha Wahlers and junior Madison Graff, all of whom missed this season due to injuries.
“I think these girls had it in them to make it and we just fell a little bit short,” Stroup said. “From failures can come really big successes and really big lessons. Hopefully, this will be the one that lights them up for next year.”
Jon Kerr is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.