Oak Park and River Forest senior Jane Walker’s chances of reaching her first girls gymnastics state meet came down to the final day.
Walker’s 8.90 on the uneven parallel bars at the Hinsdale Central Sectional, Feb. 5, remained in contention for a top-12 at-large berth entering the last of the four feed-in sectionals Thursday at Wheaton Warrenville South.
Walker shared the last at-large score. She ended up tied for 18th at-large, only 0.10 from qualifying.
“Obviously disappointed that it was so close,” OPRF coach Kris Wright said Friday. “Personally I feel frustrated for her because I strongly feel she has the skill set to be there, at least for prelims, and she has such a great work ethic and focus, and it didn’t quite pay off.”
Top-five sectional finishers automatically qualify for state. The remaining scores receive at-large consideration.
When Walker tied for seventh at sectionals on uneven bars (8.9) and was ninth on floor exercise (8.9), she had to wait until Thursday to find out her fate. Walker also missed the floor cut by .075 but was numerically eliminated Wednesday.
“I’m definitely happy with those routines. I probably couldn’t have done floor or bars any better,” Walker said immediately after the sectional.
“My [balance] beam was kind of shaky and my vault, I took a lot of steps, but I feel good about the two that I did well on.”
All four OPRF individual qualifiers were seniors — Walker, Violet Ruff, Gabby Morales and Claire Rezny. Senior all-arounder and varsity regular Ellie Wolski was injured for the postseason.
The Huskies hoped to advance to sectionals as a team for the sixth straight season but their second-place 131.525 at the Oswego Regional Feb. 5 missed the sectional’s 133.20 at-large cut. Sophomore Alexis Henderson was the team’s fifth all-arounder at regionals.
Walker also was ninth at sectionals in all-around (34.975) and Ruff was 11th on vault (9.05), which had respective at-large state cuts of 35.425 and 9.20.
“I’m glad we made it [to sectionals]. Some of the same routines that the girls did scored better than they did at regionals,” Wright said afterwards.
Walker and Ruff may continue with club gymnastics, depending on their college choices.
“I am sad because I feel like I’ve never not done gymnastics,” Ruff said.
“I grew up doing gymnastics with Jane and Claire since we were little so it’s really fun to do it with them. All of the other seniors, it’s been so fun to be on the team with them and get to know them.”