The tears of joy in Alyona Jochaniewicz’s eyes and the screams of the teammates that surrounded her said it all.
The Oak Park and River Forest High School girls gymnastics team was in a celebratory mood following Thursday night’s Glenbard West Sectional.
The Huskies made their first sectional appearance as a team since 2010 and though their season ended with a sixth-place finish, Jochaniewicz made some history by qualifying for next weekend’s state meet at Palatine in the all-around competition.
Jochaniewicz tallied 35.875 over four events to finish ninth in the competition. That was good enough to secure an at-large berth in the state meet. The top five finishers in each of the four sectionals earn automatic bids, while the next 12 highest scores advance at-large. Jochaniewicz’s score was the 11th-best among the at-large candidates.
“That is so amazing,” Jochaniewicz said when informed of the unofficial results. “Oh, my God, that’s awesome.
“I’m a mess. I’ve always wanted to go to state. I’ve always wanted to experience it, so I’m really happy.”
Jochaniewicz is just the fifth OPRF gymnast in Kris Wright’s 22-year coaching tenure to qualify for state and the first to do it since M.G. Senseng finished 17th on balance beam in 2004.
The path to state was not an easy one for Jochaniewicz, who missed the conference meet with a concussion and competed at the regional meet despite a sprained finger.
The sectional meet didn’t get off to a great start either as Jochaniewicz touched her hand on the beam, which counts as a fall. The Huskies had four falls, three of which counted, on the event.
“I was really nervous but I just kind of told myself, ‘just go out and have fun, don’t worry about anything and see where it takes you,'” Jochaniewicz said. “I’m just happy about the outcome.”
So were the Huskies, who despite the mishaps still scored 136.025 points, which was .125 higher than their regional score. While OPRF finished last in the six-team field, the performance capped a season which the squad exceeded expectations.
“I think it’s a really great accomplishment,” OPRF senior Riley Patnode said. “I don’t think that as a team at OPRF we’ve been very recognized, but I feel like this year is kind of like our breakout year and I think only good things will come from it. We’re just going to keep going forward.”
The Huskies will do so without Patnode, who capped her career by finishing 22nd in the all-around (33.3), highlighted by a 9.275 on vault, which missed the state cut by .075. She is the team’s only senior.
“I feel like we’re on an upswing,” Wright said. “We did our full circle and now we’re back on our way up because we’ll have a couple more freshmen coming in next year and we’re only graduating Riley.
“We’re real excited about that. We have a great group of girls. I am so proud of my team. They are just awesome girls and they deserve this.”
In all, four Huskies competed in the all-around Thursday, with junior Natalie Weeks capturing 19th (33.7) and freshman Grace Luptak 24th (32.8).
 Jochaniewicz was 11th on beam (8.775), 12th on bars (9.025), 14th on floor exercise (9.125) and 20th on vault (8.95), Luptak took 26th on floor (8.5) and 30th on vault (8.5), while Patnode captured 12th on vault and 31st on floor (7.9) and Weeks ranked 30th on bars (8.075).
Freshman Cecelia Doyle scored 7.0 on beam and 8.1 on bars, while junior Minna Isom, in her first year on the team after coming over from the cheerleading team, contributed 8.15 on floor exercise and 8.575 on vault.
“I think this season has been by far the best season ever,” Patnode said. “It’s been so much fun.
“We’ve bonded so much as a team and I’m so excited to come back and see how far that they get (next year) because I know that they’re going to be so amazing. It was amazing for me to be here to be a part of this team.”