Reserves Rally Gymnasts To Sectional Berth

Gemma Pollard and Talia Wexler were basically just along for the ride for Evanston’s trip to the Illinois High School Association girls gymnastics regional meet held at Palatine High School on Wednesday night.

But when teammate Elliott Ditchman rolled her ankle warming up just minutes before the start of the competition, the two underclassmen were thrown into the fire on the biggest stage of their careers.

The pair --- along with runner-up finishes from senior Ella Eovaldi on uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercise and in the all-around competition --- helped lift the ETHS program to new heights. The Wildkits qualified their entire team for next Tuesday’s Fremd Sectional, earning an at-large berth behind meet champion Palatine (138.15 points) with a season-high total of 134.825.

Evanston will join regional champions Palatine, Barrington, Glenbrook North and Saint Charles North, plus the other at-large team qualifier Rolling Meadows, at the Fremd Sectional. The Wildkits did have automatic individual qualifiers in every event, but had to wait out the final regional competition on the post-season calendar Thursday to find out officially that the entire team would be in action again next week.

For head coach Mike Spevack, it was definitely worth the wait.

“I’m at a loss. This is so freaking unbelievable!” exclaimed the ETHS coach. “I’m just over the moon right now. That’s our best team score since forever --- it’s the highest score I know of --- and I don’t know if we’ve ever made it to sectional as a team. We’ve been able to put Evanston girls gymnastics back on the map.

“When Elliott got hurt in warmups it was really an Oh, God! moment for us. That’s the first time in my coaching career that’s happened to someone of her caliber in warmups before a meet. Elliott’s an important piece of this team and she’s been a huge part of our success this year. For us to face this kind of adversity and be able to get our highest score down a man is just unbelievable.”

Spevack had to switch to Plan B for his starting lineup in every event after that mishap.

Pollard had already been penciled in to perform on beam, and Wexler was part of the original rotation on vault for the Wildkits. Ditchman did compete on bars, where she scored an 8.375, but the unexpected depth provided by Pollard and Wexler gave the Kits the boost they needed to get a cushion in the point standings while awaiting word on at-large berths.

“Losing Elliott was big. That was not an easy hill for us to climb,” said Spevack. “Gemma was our No. 5 girl for beam, but had no idea she’d be on vault, and Talia had no idea she’d be on beam and floor, too. I had to ask the meet director to give her an extra two minutes to warm up (for beam), because all of this happened quite literally at the last second. Thankfully, they gave us some extra time.

“They both stepped up to the plate and gave us exactly what we needed. I can’t imagine it was an easy task for either one of them, to attempt to come in and try to replace someone like Elliott. They had to be asking themselves “does everything ride on me now?”

Neither Pollard, a sophomore, nor Wexler, a freshman, was able to land a top five finish. Pollard contributed an 8.1 on vault and a 7.275 on beam, while Wexler scored an 8.125 on vault, 7.95 on beam, and a 7.375 on floor.

Those performances by Evanston’s reserves almost overshadowed the list of individual qualifiers for the Kits. Besides Eovaldi, earning spots on the medal stand were senior Tait Hansen (second on vault at 8.75, third on beam at 8.75), senior Rachael Rubin (tie for fourth on floor at 8.2), and freshman Julia Darer (third on vault at 8.6, fourth on bars at 8.6, and fifth all-around at 33.375).

Eovaldi, who will be seeking her third trip to the IHSA state finals next week, turned in another elite performance Wednesday. The sturdy senior opened with a sizzling 9.35 on bars, good for second behind Palatine’s all-around champion, Jolee Waddington, at 9.4.

Eovaldi added an 8.775 on balance beam, a 9.15 on floor for an all-around total of 35.175 to 37.575 for Waddington.

“I thought Ella’s routine on bars was spectacular,” Spevack praised. “She’s a senior and she’s smart enough to know that this is about doing well enough to move to the next round. She did what she needed to do.

“Ella has dominated at every invitational, every dual meet we’ve had this year. She just gets better every single year. She’s taken it to another level this year, and that’s made a huge difference for our team. I’m so proud of all of the seniors and the way they’ve been able to carry this team.”

Another piece to the puzzle that pushed ETHS from a program that hoped for an individual qualifier (or two) to the sectional level in the past to one that’s a threat in the team standings came with the arrival of Darer, a multi-talented rookie.

“We’ve had teams in the past with three (good) scores, but Julia has given us a fourth score and that pushed us over the (qualifying) edge,” he added. “You can never go anywhere without four scores.

“We scored a 134.15 in a dual meet against Maine South (on January 9th) and, when we got that score, I really didn’t even feel like we had that good a meet. But that’s the moment I realized that OK, we have something here.”