Persels pops for 4th place on floor exercise

• Reprints

Barrington's Tiffany Persels on the Vault at the Lake County Meet at Lake Forest H.S. | Joel Lerner~Sun-Times Media

Article Extras

Updated: February 21, 2012 8:16AM

Barrington senior Tiffany Persels showcased her effervescence on the floor exercise Saturday en route to earning the Lake County Invite’s fourth-best score on the event.

Persels’ 9.45 routine also proved to be the Fillies best individual showing in the talented 10-team competition.

“I’ve always been told that I have a pretty bubbly personality,” Persels explained. “On the floor, I like to smile and have a lot of fun with it. I try to get crowd involved and make everyone watch and have fun with it. That definitely helps.”

Persels pulled off one of her best all-around performances Saturday as well, racking up a 35.5 composite and averaging 8.875 in each of the four events.

Despite the fourth place medal on floor, Persels and Fillies coach Jason Loeffler agreed that the highlight of her showing at Lake Forest was her perfect dismount off the bars.

Persels had been working hard in practice on the new toe-front dismount — a trick that starts with a gymnast’s toes on the bar, before launching off and completing 1.5 flips into a blind landing.

“I was wary of her throwing it out there in the meet,” Loeffler said, “but it shows what a good, strong competitor she is. She went in there in a meet, and was not only able to stand the trick up, but she stuck it.”

The bars routine earned Persels an 8.4.

“Getting that in there and sticking it perfectly was incredible. It felt like everything paid off,” Persels said. “I just recently knuckled down on my bars routine because I really needed to add a (bigger) dismount there. I spent hours on it to get the team one more (high) score on bars.

“I walked away from the meet so proud and happy about that,” she added.

Loeffler also boasted that Persels has recently lifted her vault scores from the 8-range into the 9’s. On Saturday, Persels nailed a 9.2 in the vault.

“She’s really opened it up and taken charge,” Loeffler said.

As a team, the Fillies finished in fourth place (140.325), behind champ Carmel (151.05), Stevenson (146.2) and Lake Forest (145.83).

Freshman Jessica Lee provided the Fillies’ other two top 10 individual finishes on Saturday. Her 9.05 on beam was good for ninth and a 9.25 floor exercise earned her a 10th place ribbon.

Sophomore Lane Leedstrom scored a 9.15 on vault and freshman Jada Jones delivered a 9.1 on vault and 9.125 on floor.

“I think this year more than any we have the best chance to get our team through sectionals, regionals and to state,” Persels said. “The outlook for us is great. We are all improving and have a great chance to achieve all the goals we’ve set this year.”