A familiar varsity lineup for the Oak Park and River Forest High School girls gymnastics team is enjoying one final fling together this season.
Five of the Huskies are seniors: fourth-year team members Gabby Morales and Ellie Wolski and third-year members Claire Rezny, Violet Ruff and Jane Walker.
“I think the environment [fuels us]. We have a really good team. It’s so much fun,” Wolski said. “I think when you’re committed to a sport and you have so many friends on the team, it keeps you going.”
The Huskies still have plenty of goals to accomplish, including their first individual state berths. They have advanced to sectionals as a team the past five postseasons. Walker, Ruff, Morales and Wolski also have been individual sectional postseason qualifiers the past two seasons. There was no 2021 IHSA state series because of COVID restrictions.
“With all of us being seniors, we’re really motivated to do the best we can and get our skills, skills we’ve never competed before,” Ruff said. “I feel like it’s also motivating for the underclassmen to see us working so hard.”
Sophomores Maisie Hoerster, Teagan Lucas and Alexis Henderson also return. Hoerster currently is injured but should return in January.
“I’m graduating my whole varsity lineup,” OPRF coach Kris Wright said.
“Jane has a really, really good chance [for state] as an all-arounder and in each of her events and the other [seniors] in their individual events. We have a really strong team again this year.”
At the 2023 Lake Park Sectional, Ruff tied for 20th on vault (9.0) and Walker was 15th on uneven parallel bars (8.725), scores that were .30 and .40, respectively, from the at-large state cutoffs for those events. As a sophomore, Ruff’s 9.0 vault missed state by .15 by virtue of a top-five sectional finish.
“I feel like vault or [balance] beam, maybe I can qualify for state this year,” Ruff said. “I’ve been really happy with my beam [this season].”
Last season’s Huskies scored a season-high 136.15. Their second-highest score (134.85) took second at the Leyden Regional to advance to the Lake Park Sectional, where they finished sixth (133.475). They tied for third at the Silver Meet (134.15) and tied for second in the final overall standings.
“Placing higher at sectionals would be cool [this season]. It would be nice if we could go to state [as individuals],” Wolski said. “We have a really good support system from the older girls, but we have a bunch of younger girls and they’re so much fun and they add a lot to the team.”
The five seniors competed as all-arounders, Dec. 6, as the Huskies won their West Suburban Conference Silver Division dual 134.50 to 134.40 over Lyons Township.
Walker won all-around (35.10) and uneven parallel bars (8.8) and was second on beam (8.75) and floor exercise (8.6). Wolski was second on vault (9.0).
On Saturday, the Huskies were sixth (131.45) at Hinsdale Central’s Kim Estoque Invitational. Rezny (8.35 on beam, tied for 10th) earned a top-10 award. Other team-high scores were Wolski on floor (8.6, 12th) and vault (8.8, tied for 15th) and Morales in all-around (33.15, 16th) and uneven bars (8.2, tied for 19th). Lucas competed in place of Walker.
The Huskies were fifth at the season-opening Rolling Meadows Invite, Dec. 2 (65.175). Walker was third on uneven bars (8.8) and Rezny was seventh on beam (8.55).
In the invite format, eight gymnasts competed on one event each. Sophomore Taylor Mathias-Edwards was promoted to compete on vault.