Girls Gymnastics: Fillies get last crack at qualifying for Lake Park Sectional

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Barrngton's Jada Johns on the floor exercise at the Lake County Meet at Lake Forest H.S. | Joel Lerner~Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 3, 2012 11:27AM

Barrington girls gymnastics coach Jason Loeffler said there are advantages to having the last of the four regionals, and there are potential disadvantages.

By the time the Fillies compete at Friday’s Palatine Regional (6:30 p.m.), the three other regionals that feed in Tuesday’s Lake Park Sectional will have been completed.

Loeffler believes this could potentially lead to higher scores from the judges, who will have a large sample size to base their analysis. Additionally, Barrington gymnasts will know as soon as the meet ends whether the team has advanced, which it has a chance of doing as an at-large, and who many individuals qualified.

The drawback, said Loeffler, is gymnasts could go into the meet knowing exactly what score they need to advance, which could add to the pressure. He’s urging his gymnasts and their parents to stay off the Internet and just focus on the task at-hand.

“If my girls’ parents don’t tell them exactly what they need, there won’t be added pressure and (the last regional) is a great place to be,” the coach said. “I won’t let the girls know the scores. Even when we’re at a meet, I don’t let them know what place or what the team score is. It’s extra stress and pressure. How you practice is how you compete. You need to be nice and relaxed in the gym. Once you start throwing scores at kids, it’s almost overwhelming.”

At Friday’s MSL Meet at Prospect, Loeffler couldn’t help his gymnasts from seeing the team scores during the meet because they were posted on a big screen.

Barrington stood in second place after three rotations and the Fillies knew a good performance on bars would solidify that spot behind Fremd.

However, the Fillies counted five falls and dropped to fourth (139.700), just behind third-place Palatine (140.700). Fremd (146.400) held off Prospect (143.475) to win the title.

Loeffler said he’s not blaming the added pressure of knowing the score for his team’s mishaps. The coach said the team has struggled on bars recently, and has to make the necessary corrections if it is to reach the sectional and potentially the IHSA state meet, though Barrington remains a long-shot.

“We have to deal with (bars). The past couple meets we’ve been having trouble,” Loeffler said. “If we would have had just two falls (at conference), we would have had second place. It’s something we have to figure out.”

Loeffler said that despite his gymnasts’ struggles on bars, he would not alter the way they prepared for the Friday’s regional.

“We work on every event, every single day,” he said. “It’s crunch time and we have to get these kids comfortable on all the events, get them prepared for Friday. (Training for regional) we’re going to do routines, routines, routines — a million routines.”

At the conference meet, Barrington freshman Jessica Lee finished fifth in all-around (36.475), which included a fourth-place finish on vault (9.325), a tie for sixth on beam (9.1), ninth on floor (9.250) and 11th on bars (8.8).

Fillies senior Tiffany Persels was seventh on vault (9.275) and 14th in all-around (35.050). Another top-10 performance was turned in by Barrington freshman Jada Jones, who finished ninth on vault (9.175). Jones also came in 15th on floor (9.0).

Senior Claire Timlin tied for 20th in the all-around (33.850).

Another highlight was the performance of senior Marrissa Krzysko, who competed floor and bars after missing much of the season with an injury.

Joining the Fillies at Friday’s regional will be top-seeded Prairie Ridge, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Buffalo Grove.

Loeffler said his team likely would need around 140 to earn one of the four at-large berths to Tuesday’s Lake Park Sectional (6:30 p.m.). He added that a score of 145 or higher would put Barrington in contention for one of the four at-large spots for state.

Barrington’s high score this season is 140.325.