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Girls Gymnastics: Morgan Wilkes feeling good after a strong performance
It’s still early in the season, but Oak Park-River Forest’s Morgan Wilkes surprised even herself on the vault at Saturday’s Hinsdale Central Invitational.
“I guess the judge had never seen anyone rotate with a twist on the vault,” said Wilkes, a senior. “It was a handspring full twist.”
The senior scored a 9.2 on the vault to finish fifth in the eight-team meet. The Huskies (122.55) placed seventh while Wilkes took ninth (32.60) in the all-around. OPRF’s other top all-arounders was Isabel Beebe (15th, 31.50) while Nicole Hutchinson (20th, 28.90), Alexis Perez (22nd, 28.65) and Kendall Heininger (23rd, 28.50) rounded out the field.
The Huskies competed without three varsity gymnasts, who were expected to return for OPRF’s West Suburban Silver dual meet Wednesday at Hinsdale Central. OPRF competes at the Wheaton Warrenville South Invitational at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Coach Kris Wright had to move JV gymnasts up to fill spots opened by Annabelle Golden-Mertdoga and Nicole Pohlman, who were taking the ACT exam, and Emma Rosenbaum, who missed the Hinsdale meet due to an illness.
Wilkes placed 15th on floor exercise (8.7), 21st on balance beam (7.3) and 25th on uneven bars (7.4).
With a long break ahead after the meet in Wheaton, Wright will expect her team to increase its skills. The Huskies don’t compete again until a dual meet Jan. 6 against Downers Grove North at OPRF.
“All the girls have to understand, what do you want out of the season?” Wright asked. “What do you want to bring to the table? You have to have more than 100 percent. You can’t just show up.”
Wright hopes she will be able to get Wilkes’ confidence up to get the senior to bring back her double fly on the bars. Wilkes performed the trick last season, but her lower-than-normal score in Saturday’s meet shows that the team’s top returning gymnast will need to add to her degree of difficulty to get back to the sectional in the postseason.
The rest might be up to Wilkes.
“I’m happy where I am,” Wilkes said of her Saturday score. “This is where I wanted to be.”
Perez, Hutchinson and Heininger were the JV gymnasts moved into Saturday’s varsity lineup. Beebe was OPRF’s highest finishing gymnast other than Wilkes with a pair of finishes at 21st in the beam (7.3) and floor (8.4).
After the Wheaton meet, there is only one month left to the regular season.
“In my mind, January is the key month to start putting things together,” Wright said.
The conference meet will be held Jan. 28.
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