OP_020620

36 | February 6, 2020 | the orland Park Prairie sports
OPPrairiedaily.com
AREA SPORTS ROUNDUP
Eagles girls sports team are soaring high
Dancers take 21st,
cheerleaders win
sectional and girls
hoops eye 20 wins
JEFF VORVA, Sports Editor
Sandburg’s competitive
dance team just left the
building on Friday, Jan.
31.
Sandburg’s cheerleaders
will enter the building
on Friday, Feb. 7.
Grossinger Motors Arena
in Bloomington hosted
the Illinois High School
Association state finals in
competitive dancing and
Sandburg finished 21st
with an 82.76. The Eagles
did not advance to the second
day of action. Stevenson
won the event with an
eye-popping 99.24.
The Eagles have made
it to state in all eight years
of the event.
They barely made it this
year as they finished sixth
in the Class 3A Geneva
Sectional to grab the final
spot.
“We knew it would be
a very tough sectional,”
Sandburg coach Jill Roberson
said. “So we made
it and wanted to have
our best routine at state.
That’s what they did and
that’s all we could ask
for.”
Athletes on the roster
are Alexis Aurelio, Kara
Curtin, Chloe Dittmer,
Kate Ferguson, Maggie
Jones, Alyssa Latorre,
Camden McElligott,
Courtney Michaelsen,
Christina Randolph, Charlotte
Reynolds, Nicole
Rooks, Katherine Scuderi,
Shariden Sobkowiak and
Keelyn Sriver.
In Class 1A, Providence
Sandburg’s dance team performs at the IHSA state
competition on Friday, Jan. 31.
JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
Sandburg’s cheerleading team poses outside of Joliet
Central High School after winning the ninth sectional in
program history. PHOTO SUBMITTED
Catholic finished 11th.
Orland Park’s Colleen
Lappin and Kathryn Hamilton
were on that squad.
Marist, which featured
Orland Park’s Caroline
Callaghan, placed 27th in
Class 2A.
The Sandburg cheerleading
squad invades
the facility this weekend
with a full head of steam
after capturing the large
team division of the Joliet
Central Sectional with
a 92.43. It’s the Eagles’
ninth sectional title in
team history.
Athletes on coach
Mike Bruce’s roster are
Alyssa Benard, Hannah
Ford, Breanna Gasparas,
Stephanie Gaspardo, Gabriella
Gianakas, Olivia
Gomez, Alexandra Henninger,
Amy Johnson,
Kylie Kehlert, Carrington
Landers, Jessica Lawler,
Meghan McCurdy, Lily
Nevin, Anna Piacente,
4
Madalyn Riebel, Caroline
Schmidt, Anna Senese,
Sara Senese, Elisa Shaheen,
Ava Stroobosscher,
Nicole Tatar and Victoria
Vargas.
The Eagles qualified
in all 15 state meets that
the IHSA has sanctioned.
Sandburg won the first
meet in 2006 and also
won state titles in 2009
and 2012. The program
also finished third in 2008,
2010 and 2017.
Eagles shooting for 20
After splitting a pair
of games with Yorkville
and Lockport, Sandburg’s
girls basketball team entered
this week’s action
with a 17-8 mark.
The Eagles have four
regular-season games
and at least one postseason
game on the schedule
to try to win three more
games to hit the 20 mark.
All four regular-season
games are at home.
However, two of those
games are against Homewood-Flossmoor
and
Bolingbrook, who beat
the Eagles earlier in the
season. One is against
Lincoln-Way East, whom
the Eagles beat 52-45 in
the first meeting. The final
regular-season game is a
non-conference contest
with Thornton Fractional
South, which entered this
week with an 8-17 mark.
The Eagles hope to get a
desirable seed in regional
action and maybe win a
game or two in the postseason.
Sandburg beat Yorkville,
47-30, on Jan. 28
as Grace Badon led the
team with 15 points. Two
days later, they dropped a
51-27 game to Lockport.
GIRLS GYMNASTICS
Andrew co-op team may get
a fifth shot at Lincoln-Way
JEFF VORVA, Sports Editor
The Andrew co-op gymnastics
team, which also
features athletes from
Sandburg and Stagg, has
faced Lincoln-Way’s powerful
co-op team four times
this year and has come up
short all four times - twice
by less than one point.
The latest setback came
in the SouthWest Suburban
Conference meet on
Jan. 29 when Lincoln-Way
came out on top 143.300-
138.500 as the two teams
finished first and second
in the three-team meet.
Lincoln-Way has finished
sixth, seventh and eighth
in the state in the past three
years.
The two teams could
face each other a fifth
time in sectional action on
Tuesday, Feb. 11.
“It’s a good rivalry,” Andrew
coach Allison Hack
said. “It’s good to see them
and it’s nice to see where
we’re at. The last two
meets, we were 2/10ths of
a points away from them.
We were on their heels.”
Taylor Talley was the
SCWC all-around winner
for the second year in a
row as she posted 36.750,
barely beating Lincoln-
Way’s Korina Jarosz and
Grace Kmak, who each
scored 36.550. Talley tied
for first in the vault (9.350)
and was an outright champion
in the uneven bars
(9.275 and floor exercise
(9.525).
“The Lincoln-Way
girls are friends and we
practice together over the
summer,” Talley said. “It
doesn’t get old to face
them because we have a
2
Andrew co-op’s
Taylor Tally, a senior
at Sandburg, won
her second straight
conference title on
Jan. 29. JEFF VORVA/22ND
CENTURY MEDIA
nice relationship. We like
seeing them.”
The T-Bolts’ Bella Lapera
finished fourth in allaround
with a 34.400 and
Maddie Giglio was fifth
with a 33.700.
The team opens regional
competition at Hinsdale
South on Thursday, Feb. 6.
The Bolts have passed the
140-point mark this season
and hope to return to that
type of score in the postseason.
“They just need to hit
their routines they know
they can hit,” Hack said.
“If we can do that, we’ll be
knocking on the door.”
Andrew’s JV team won
the conference title with
Becca Crnich winning the
all-around with a 31.875.