Junior varsity gymnasts fly high Saints win several big meets; Bulldogs' future promising.(SportsXtra) - Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

Byline: Jeff Clarkson Daily Herald Correspondent

The 1998-99 season was outstanding for the St. Charles junior varsity gymnastics team.

The Saints won all their duals, the Upstate Eight Conference meet and the New Trier, Conant freshman and York junior varsity invitationals.

The Saints completed their high score of the season (124.9) in the JV conference meet.

'The level of talent and hard work were reasons for our success,' said Saints coach Jim Guest. 'The kids were willing, and they worked extremely hard. Many of them hadn't done gymnastics before this year.'

Some of the girls came from clubs, most from the St. Charles club but at least one from the Geneva Jumpers. One hadn't done gymnastics since she was 10 years old.

The JV team consisted mainly of freshmen and a few seniors.

The Saints individually had a field day at the conference meet.

Sophomore Kate Wymore led the Saints at the conference meet. She won the all-around with 31.7 (7.925 average), capturing the uneven parallel bars (8.1). She finished third on floor (7.8) and fifth on beam.

Teammate Danielle Pavela won beam (8.3), finished fifth on floor (7.7) and third in all-around (31.0). Jessica Girdwain finished third on beam (8.0), Diane Mika finished second (7.8) and Carly Jugenitz. fourth on bars, and Mika finished fourth by just a tenth behind Pavela. Kristen Derrico led the Saints on vault (8.2)

Lisa Mercier turned in a solid effort for the Saints at the Conant invitational in the all-around. Christine Eppes competed well on floor and bars, and Summer Collins competed well on floor exercise and vaulting.

'Lisa, Danielle and Jessica had an outstanding first year,' Guest said. 'The girls kept improving.'

Batavia

The process of developing a gymnastics team over the past eight years has been a successful one at Batavia. The program hit a new height this season.

'We have tremendous depth,' said Bulldogs coach Steve Conlon. 'In the past, we have had 12, 14 or 16 girls come out, but this year 29 girls came out. The interest in the sport is booming.

'We had a strong, competitive junior varsity team this year. We were pleased with the turnout.'

Many of the girls come from one of three clubs, Excel Gym in Aurora, Plano YMCA and the Midwest Gymnastics Academy. The team is young without any seniors.

The Bulldogs finished 5-3 on the junior varsity level. They placed third in the Suburban Prairie Conference behind traditional powers Oswego and Glenbard South with one of their highest team scores of the season (112.5).

They had a team-high 114.8 in their first meet of the season. They did well even though they had four freshmen and four sophomores on the varsity team.

The freshmen on the team finished third of 12 teams at the Oswego invitational.

The competition to make the team is so strong, some of the Bulldogs are specializing in an event or more.

At the conference meet, sophomore Sarah Hussman finished fourth in vault, junior Melissa Paukstis took second on floor and freshman Lisa Allen was fifth in the all-around. Oswego and Glenbard South dominated the other places.

Freshmen Megan Grant and Sarah Arlis and sophomores Mary Cooper and Stephanie Holmes made good progress through the season.

'Stephanie Holmes is one of the most improved girls over the last two years and a leader of the JV team,' Conlon said.

'We wanted to get the freshmen's feet wet. It is a comfortable place for them to learn their sport, and they built themselves up throughout the year.'