Naperville Central’s girls gymnastics team placed second at the DuPage Valley Championships on Jan. 31, with team members taking home six individual awards.
The team competed against Naperville North, DeKalb and the Valley Co-Op, a team made up of students from Neuqua, Waubonsie and Metea Valley. The Valley Vehicles placed first.
“We actually had a really strong start for bars,” head coach Christina Tardy said. “[One girl] had a little hiccup, but luckily, she finished her routine and still scored a solid score for us. Vault is always one of our strongest events to start off on. That was really good for us to get the meet going.”
The team’s strong floor performance led to their second-place finish, with freshman Mia Lupo leading the team with a second place finish in the event.
“Honestly, tonight on floor was something else,” junior Ava Prokop said. “That was the best we’ve done all season. It was the best I’ve done all season, and I’m just really proud of us. Everyone performed so well, [and] everyone hit their routines. It truly was the best way to finish out DVC and one of our last meets of the season.”
Prokop also thinks that the team needs to improve their motivation during meets.
“We work so hard in practice, but when it comes to the meet, we just have so [many] nerves,” Prokop said. “You could say that about any team, but I feel like, especially us, what really gets us is the lack of confidence. Overall, [there’s] a domino effect because we’re just so close [that when] one thing goes wrong, we’re all [feeling] like, ‘oh no.’”
Senior Alana Williams placed fifth in uneven bars and fifth overall.
“We had a goal to get second place, and we achieved it,” Williams said. “I’m really proud of everyone for just putting in the hard work and understanding what they needed to do and how to get it done.”
Overall, Prokop believes the team has improved significantly this season.
“Since I was a freshman, we were not doing too hot, and this year was one of our best years ever,” Prokop said. “We’ve broken all [the] personal goals that we wanted to. We placed second at DVC, which was definitely our goal. We beat North [and] placed second, and we haven’t done that in a very long time. So I’m very proud of us, and especially some of the new girls on the team.”