After sweeping all-around and the preliminary events on Friday, Conant’s Allison Buckley figured why stop there.
In Saturday’s finals, the junior set a state vaulting record and swept all four individual events to pace Conant to its first state gymnastics championship.
Conant, runner-up the last two seasons, collected 150.75 points to lead a Mid-Suburban League trophy sweep. Fremd, the 2005 state champion, was second with 148.825 and host Palatine took third with a 148.50. Carmel was fourth with 146.525.
It was the first time in IHSA history that schools from the same conference finished 1-2-3 in a state team competition.
Saturday’s standout was clearly Buckley, a junior who shared the uneven bars state title in 2005.
In the vault, the night’s first event, Buckley’s near-flawless performance earned her a 9.95 on her second attempt.
That eclipsed the state mark of 9.9 shared by Warren’s Danyelle Aber (2004) and Libertyville’s Lauren Petric (2000).
“I was really excited [about the record],” said Buckley, who received three 9.95s and a 9.9 from the judges. “I didn’t know I got it until I stepped up [to the awards stand]. It’s pretty cool.”
Buckley followed with a 9.725 to win the uneven parallel bars, an improvement from her 9.65 score in 2005.
She also had a 9.8 to win balance beam, an improvement of 1.25 points over Friday’s preliminaries.
The sweep concluded with Buckley’s 9.8 floor-exercise performance.
She seemed to know the results, beaming at the conclusion of her routine.
Buckley already had scored a perfect 10 in floor exercise in a December invitational.
Conant had a cumulative 149.5 team score going into Saturday’s finals and padded that, thanks to higher scores by Buckley in the vault, balance beam and floor exercise.
Teammate Amy Chovanec’s score improved from Friday on the beam (9.475).
Top performers for second-place Fremd included sophomore Mary Burke, who was second on beam (9.65) and floor exercise (9.525) and third on the uneven bars (9.6).
She was the state all-around, vault and balance beam champion last year.
Vikings junior Holly Reichard, meanwhile, took second on the uneven bars with her 9.65 score.
Palatine’s top finishers included junior Ginia Ference, fourth in vaulting (9.7) and uneven bars (9.5), and her sister Elissa Ference, fifth on the beam (9.45).
