OPRF gymnasts fueled by new faces and location

Caroline Mann and her Oak Park and River Forest High School girls gymnastics teammates have experienced plenty of changes.

After graduating five senior standouts from last year’s varsity lineup, Mann is the only senior in the program who has seen varsity and junior varsity I competition.

“It’s kind of special being the only senior,” Mann said. “It’s definitely really interesting. I’m all by myself and it’s hard to try and lift up the team by myself like I’m supposed to do, but I have a lot of help from the juniors, who all take a lot of leadership roles.”

Juniors Alexis Henderson and Maisie Hoerster are the only returnees with significant varsity experience. Also on the varsity roster are juniors Claire Garnett and Teagan Lucas, sophomore Zoe Schwartz, and freshman Reese Hardy.

The Huskies posted a season-high 125.90 points at Lyons Township (134.30), Dec. 11, and were seventh at Hinsdale Central’s Kim Estoque Invitational Saturday with a 125.525.

At Hinsdale Central, Henderson (8.35) and Schwartz (8.25) tied for 13th and 16th on floor exercise and Hoerster was 19th on balance beam (7.95). Henderson (8.35) and Schwartz (7.625) had top scores on vault and uneven parallel bars. A first-year high-school gymnast, Schwartz has been among the top performers.

“We’re re-creating a new varsity squad. It’s kind of who wants this bad enough,” OPRF coach Kris Wright said. “It’s kind of a newer group but the junior girls are stepping up and we’ve got a lot of new faces coming in at the JV I level.”

It’s also a new training and competition setup. With construction at the high school, the gymnasts now are practicing at Tri-Star Gymnastics in Forest Park, where Wright also is one of the club coaches.

Working with Tri-Star’s class schedule, the Huskies take a bus and practice there after school or at night. They will have one home meet, Jan. 23, against Morton to honor Mann.

“It’s kind of hard because we don’t have the [OPRF] gym, keeping at it with this new, different and kind of weird schedule, but we’ve all been doing great,” Mann said. “I think our energy is the best part of our team. We just have so much energy and so much fun that it’s making the team environment great.”

Last year’s season-high score was 134.70. At regionals, Henderson was among the five all-arounders for the Huskies (131.525) who just missed advancing to sectionals as a team for the sixth straight season.

Hoerster competed varsity as a freshman but missed all of last season with a partially torn posterior cruciate knee ligament, suffered right before the first meet.

“[Last season] was sad but that makes it even more special this year,” Hoerster said. “I’m back and I’m not injured anymore, so I can just do everything fully and it’s really fun. I missed it.”

The Huskies opened the season Dec. 7, taking sixth at the Rolling Meadows Invite (63.40). Eight gymnasts per team competed on one event each and two per event.

Junior Taylor Mathias-Edwards was seventh on vault (8.5), and Henderson 10th on uneven bars (7.75) at Rolling Meadows. Consuelo Emano Garcia also was promoted to compete on vault.

Against Lyons Township, Schwartz was third on uneven bars (8.8) and Henderson tied for third on floor (8.1) and was fourth in all-around (32.00).

Mann competed in varsity exhibition routines.

“It’s really fun helping out Caroline. It’s just special since there only is one senior,” Hoerster said. “We get to create a stronger bond with her.”

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