By Maggie Devereux
Executive Sports Editor
The girls’ gymnastics team swept every event Jan. 6 as they faced Hoffman Estates and Buffalo Grove in a home tri-meet. Freshman Giana Scala was the all-around champion with 35.85 points, senior Christina Pekar followed with 34.15 points and sophomore Maggie Kania took third with 34.1 points.
Scala took first on bars with a score of 9.0 and on vault with a 9.35. Pekar took first on beam with a score on 9.1, and Kania took first of floor with a score of 9.0. The team took first with 139.4 points, outscoring Buffalo Grove, who had 119.4, and Hoffman Estates, with 110.8.
Despite shutting out the competition, both the girls and coach Randy Smith feel the meet was not one of their strongest.
“We were a little shy of where we wanted to be point-wise,” Smith said. “Everyone just has to clean up little things here and there.”
“I think we all did our best,” junior Lauren Johnson said. “But [there were] a few stumbles and falls on beam.”
According to Kania though, the way they recover from those stumbles is by cheering for each other as they move on to the next event, which “lifts them up.”
The team has had to rely on each other this season because they needed to make up for their injured teammates. For example, senior Sarah Pekar could not compete Jan. 6 due to a concussion. Thursday’s meet was also the first time Johnson was fully competing after suffering from a broken foot.
“We haven’t had a meet at 100 percent yet,” Smith said. “We are just waiting for everything to come together.”
Smith said that the team’s goal each meet has been to break the school record —that way, they are striving to score higher and higher each meet. Although no records were broken against BG and Hoffman, Scala did break the school’s all around record with a score of 37.2 on Dec. 15.  That same night, Scala broke Prospect’s floor record with a score of 9.65.
Smith feels the rest of the season should turn out really strong, especially if all the athletes are able to compete.
“We just have to clean up everthing and stay strong and get healthy,” Smith said. “They’re doing it; it’s a slow process, but they’re doing it.”