Darer Delivers On Gamble, Earns Trip To State

Julia Darer took a chance last Thursday.

And because she did, the Evanston sophomore kept her season alive and punched a ticket to the Illinois High School Association state gymnastics finals.

Darer earned an at-large qualifying spot in vault after implementing a late change in that skill set, a gamble designed to improve her scoring chances at the sectional. She’ll compete in the State vault preliminaries on Friday at 2 p.m. at Palatine High School after posting a season-best score of 9.35 at the sectional.

Darer’s first trip to the state finals probably won’t be her last. She and junior teammate Elliot Ditchman both turned in strong all-around performances at the sectional, with respective scores of 34.45 and 33.075, but fell short in their bids for automatic state spots that went to the top 5 finishers in each sectional.

Darer needed the boost in her potential scoring to make it to State. The at-large cutoff score to advance on vault was 9.3 for all of the sectional hopefuls, so there wasn’t much margin for error.

It didn’t take much convincing from ETHS head coach Mike Spevack for Darer to gamble on a different routine entering the biggest meet of her career to date. Gymnasts, like boys and girls divers in high school, often add to their repertoire for postseason competition to push the envelope on their potential scores.

So Darer replaced her usual Yurchenko tuck with a Yurchenko pike --- and nailed it on her first try Thursday. The fact that she wiped out on her second try didn’t prevent her from advancing.

“I just said give yourself the best chance to do it (advance to State). If you don’t make it, you don’t make it,” Spevack explained. “And when we saw that vault was her last event (in the sectional rotation), we just said go out there and chuck it. The worst that can happen is that you don’t get the value (from the judges) you should get.

“You have to set yourself apart and show everything you can do at some point. You don’t want to leave anything on the table. Julia had only practiced it maybe three times before the meet. Physically, we knew she could do the skill. Could she land it? Of course she could. She just had to leave it all out there and she did.

“All you need is one good one --- and that was a pretty damn good vault! To me, it was wildly impressive.”

Darer confessed that she actually considered sticking with her usual vault on the first attempt, with the pike (extended legs) added for the second attempt. But she went with a new game plan after succeeding with the new vault during warm-ups.

“It was definitely taking a risk, but I knew I wanted to try that pike,” Darer said. “I’ve done it in practice during club season, but I’ve never really competed with it. I did attempt it a couple of times earlier this year and I just decided to bring it back.

“I had this goal (making it to State) in my head but I never said it because I wasn’t sure it was possible. And when I didn’t make it on (balance) beam, I knew I’d still have a good shot on vault if I changed my routine.”

Darer’s comeback effort on vault raised her all-around score to 34.45, just short of the 35.1 tally needed to advance as a competitor there. A fall on beam limited her to a 7.9 in what has been her favorite event, but the sophomore standout was able to shrug off that disappointment just like she did after beam falls at the regional.

Darer also scored an 8.45 on uneven bars and an 8.75 on floor exercise. Ditchman’s all-around total of 33.075 included an 8.025 on floor, an 8.45 on beam, an 8.25 on bars and an 8.35 on vault.

“I am surprised because my vaults have been pretty good all year, and last year I was pretty inconsistent,” said the ETHS sophomore. “If I didn’t miss my connection on beam, I probably would have made it there. That’s my favorite event, but vault is a close second.

“Last year I let it mess me up when I had a fall or made a mistake. I’d stay upset for the next event. This year, when I do fall, I’ve been able to brush it off and move on more.”

“The same thing (fall on beam) happened at the regional,” said Spevack, “and Julia did an incredible job in the next event, rather than just give up. There’s a lesson there to be learned, about not carrying on what might have happened in a previous event into the next one, and she’s learned it.

“I could not be happier with how both she and Elliot finished. At State, vault is anybody’s game. The question is if you can land on your feet, and everyone who does will be in a good position to move forward. Just land it and put yourself in a good position. You just don’t know who will show the consistency you need to get a medal.”

“I’ve never been to State before, so I’m not sure what the competition or the scoring will be like,” Darer added. “I’m not planning any more changes. I just hope to land it clean, and as long as I do, I’ll feel good about it.”