Eovaldi Returns To State Gym Finals

No female gymnast in the state of Illinois can take it for granted when it comes to qualifying for the Illinois High School Association state finals.

The level of competition among the state’s elite is so high that there’s little margin for error even if you’ve been to the state finals before.

That’s what makes Ella Eovaldi’s third trip to State in four years so special. The Evanston senior was one of the automatic qualifiers coming out of the Fremd Sectional Tuesday on uneven parallel bars, recording a fifth place finish with a score of 8.95.

Now, Eovaldi hopes to save her best for last on her best event. The state finals will be held Friday and Saturday at Palatine High School and it will be the sturdy senior’s last hurrah as a high school gymnast.

But just getting there is a major accomplishment in itself, considering that multiple state qualifying performances have been rare for individuals in the history of the ETHS program.

Eovaldi is already in the conversation as a potential GOAT --- Greatest Of All-Time --- among the gymnasts who have wore the Orange and Blue at Evanston and can enhance that reputation even more if she can reach Saturday’s individual finals.

Wildkit coach Mike Spevack believes the best is yet to come.

“I think this was a tougher year than normal to qualify for State, if you look at the scores,” said Spevack, himself a former elite gymnast in high school. “The talent level for the girls always seems to be so high. One fall, your score goes down 5-10ths of a point --- and you’re out. A ton of the girls who won’t make it to State are still unbelievably talented.

“For Ella to make it in 3 of her 4 years is an incredible feat. Some of our other girls were a little disappointed because they didn’t make it (as at-large qualifiers), but the I view it like even just coming close is an incredible accomplishment. I know that doesn’t bring them any solace, but you don’t even get close by accident.

“Ella had an ‘off night’ with a score of 8.95 --- she’s that freaking good! There were two different parts of her routine that she didn’t do well and that’s what cost her. She split her legs on her half turn off the high bar, and she also split them when she went from the high bar to the low bar. She doesn’t do that normally. It was an off night for her form wise.”

The ETHS coach pointed out that even though Eovaldi didn’t qualify for last year’s finals on bars, she did perform as an all-around competitor in that event on the sport’s biggest high school stage. She’s been there --- and done that.

“Ella has been in this position before and I think bars is her best event,” Spevack said. “I can only think of one time all year that she didn’t nail that (bars) routine. The consistency has been there and I know she’ll pour her heart into it getting ready for State. I don’t think it’s far-fetched to think she can make it to the finals. Now it’s just about repetitions in practice and we’ll try to clean up her form a little.”

Evanston settled for a team score of 133.425 points at the sectional held at Fremd, off the season best effort of 134.825 at the regional. No one besides Eovaldi was able to advance in a format where the top five individuals in every event automatically qualify for State, plus the top 12 at-large scorers. Sectional competition didn’t conclude until Friday night, but by then the Wildkits all realized they’d remain on the sidelines.

Eovaldi turned in an all-around score of 34.725, with teammates Julia Darer (32.875) and Tait Hansen (32.725) also falling short in their bids to keep their season alive. Eovaldi’s total included an 8.25 on vault, an 8.925 on floor exercise, and an 8.6 on balance beam.

Hansen, one of three seniors on this year’s squad along with Eovaldi and Rachael Rubin, posted Evanston’s only score about 9 with her 9.1 performance on vault.

“That was the best vault of Tait’s career,” Spevack praised. “She just started practicing a different vault two days before the meet because we wanted to add a couple of 10ths to her (potential) score. She was using a tuck and tsuk(ahara), and we changed it to a pike and tsuk. She actually messed up the first vault, but the second vault was the best vault I’ve ever seen her do. She really crushed it and it was the highest score of her career.

“Tait left nothing in the tank and I’m so proud of her. She threw everything out there, and she just fell short.

“Did the meet go as well as we wanted it to as a team? No, it didn’t. But we did something that hasn’t been done here in an incredibly long time (advancing the entire ETHS team from the regional to the sectional). We had an historic year and there’s no doubt in my mind that we accomplished something pretty special.”