Stay Connected with YourSeason
Girls Gymnastics: Carmel crowned state champs again
Updated: February 18, 2012 9:17PM
Carmel had to wait until Saturday night for its girls gymnastics three-peat to become official, even though it wasn’t mathematically possible for runner-up Stevenson (149.175) and third place Prairie Ridge co-op (148.175) to catch the Corsairs during the individual events championships.
With the team title a bit of an afterthought on Saturday, the Corsairs focused on dominating the individual events, and began with a bang. Sarah Cohen-Smith recorded a career-high 9.875 with her Yurchenko layout and was followed by teammates Kristin Mirski (9.85) and Lauren Feely (9.80).
Cohen-Smith’s score jumped from her 9.75 in Friday’s preliminaries.
“On my second one I was involved in the moment. There’s my mom in front of me and there’s my teammates,” she said. “I was oblivious. I didn’t know what happened and I saluted and then my coach came up to me and said ‘Congratulations, that was so beautiful, go to your teammates’. So I ran to my teammates and they gave me a hug. It was so real. It’s unbelievable.”
It was an unbelievably successful weekend for the Corsairs who became the first team to win three-straight titles since Stevenson finished a four-year run in 2004.
Feely successfully defended her beam title, narrowly edging Stevenson’s Ali Castriano and Prairie Ridge co-op’s Rachael Underwood, 9.55 to 9.5.
Mirski shared top honors on floor with DeKalb/Sycamore co-op’s Alyssa Lopez. It was the second straight floor title for Mirski, who medaled on floor three times during her four-year career.
Carmel had 10 opportunities to increase its team score on Saturday and succeeded on four occasions to finish with 151.175 points.
“These girls worked so incredibly hard and every moment of this they deserve,” Carmel coach Sarah Doyle said. “They handled everything beautifully.”
Glenbard North senior Amanda Quinn and Lyons freshman Kelsy Kurfirst tied for top honors on bars with a 9.6.
© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Cell Phone Alerts
Comments Click here to view or make a comment