Metering is ON

Girls Gymnastics: Huskies look to finish strongly

Story Image Downers Grove, 01/28/12--Hinsdale Central's Cayley Brenk performs on the bars. Downers Grove North HS hosted the West Suburban Conference Silver Division Girls' Gymnastics Championship Meet on Saturday. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media
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Oak Park-River Forest’s top finisher at the West Suburban Conference Silver Division meet Saturday was Annabelle Goldin-Mertdoga on the uneven bars.

But it will take a near-perfect effort to survive the Wheaton Warrenville South Regional at 6:30 p.m. Friday. The Huskies finished fifth (128.675) in the conference meet and will have a small margin of error at the regional.

Goldin-Mertdoga tied for ninth (8.475) on the bars while competing as a specialist. OPRF’s top all-arounder was Morgan Wilkes (33.550) in 11th place while Isabel Beebe (31.60) was 16th and Nicole Pohlman (30.60) was 18th.

“We had an awesome practice (earlier in the week),” OPRF coach Kris Wright said. “They worked on the beam and we stuck on it.”

Goldin-Mertdoga was OPRF’s only gymnast in the top 10 at the conference meet.

On individual events, Wilkes placed 12th on vault (8.7), 12th on bars (8.15), 12th on floor (8.7) and 19th on beam (8.0).

On the beam, the top Huskies were Emma Rosenbaum (8.150) and Beebe (8.125), who finished 16th and 17th, respectively.

OPRF was assigned to the WW South Regional for the second consecutive year. The top five finishers in each event automatically advance to the Glenbard North Sectional at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 8. Finishers outside of the top five must wait for an at-large berth to the sectional.

“I think they know it’s elimination (time),” Wright said. “The routines we’ve worked on all season; we’ve got to the big meet and now we need to hit.”

The WW South Regional includes defending regional champion DeKalb-Sycamore Co-op, a No. 3 sectional seed, and the sixth-seeded WW South Co-op. The Huskies are the No. 14 seed in the sectional.

“I have great girls,” Wright said. “We do the best we can for all that we have. That’s all I can ask of them.”

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