Girls Gymnastics: Carmel captures third consecutive state crown
by bill mclean Contributor February 18, 2012 10:10PM
Kristin Mirski (left) and Jen Zeller hoist Carmel's first-place trophy at the IHSA State Finals on Saturday at Palatine High School. | Joel Lerner~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 24, 2012 8:29AM
Last week, before the girls gymnastics state meet at Palatine, Andy Bitto wrote a letter to six girls.
He’s the athletic director at Carmel Catholic.
And the school’s football coach.
“I got sappy,” said Bitto of his letter’s content.
Said junior Kari Osowski, one of the girls: “But it was good sappy, really inspirational.”
Bitto’s letter was read aloud by Carmel gymnastics coach Sarah Mikrut-Doyle on the bus ride to Palatine on Friday.
“What a nice letter,” Mikrut-Doyle said.
Bitto thanked the Corsairs, the two-time reigning state champions, for their leadership throughout the 2011-12 season and for what they’d meant to the school and the Carmel Catholic community.
“I also wrote that winning a state title is difficult, that winning two in a row is rare and that winning three in a row would be a once-in-a-generation accomplishment,” Bitto said.
“These girls,” he added, “are once-in-a-generation girls.”
The girls won state last weekend.
Once again.
It was the program’s third straight state championship and fifth overall; Carmel’s 1992-3 teams, featuring Doyle, as Sarah Mikrut, captured the first two.
Carmel Catholic’s only other team state champion was the 2003 football squad, coached by a certain thoughtful scribe.
“I couldn’t be any prouder of a group of girls than I am now,” Bitto said after Saturday’s event finals at Palatine.
Mikrut-Doyle’s crew capped a dominant season with a 151.175-point effort — the seventh time the Corsairs had amassed 150 or more points in 2011-12.
Runner-up Stevenson scored 149.175, followed by Prairie Ridge co-op (148.175, third place).
Carmel’s Kristin Mirski, named Illinois senior gymnast of the year, finished runner-up in the all-around (38.4) on Friday, before successfully defending her floor state title (9.7) and taking second on vault (9.85) and fourth on bars (9.5) in Saturday’s event finals.
Her career gold-medal haul: five (two individual prizes, three as a team member).
She missed a sixth gold by … 0.05.
DeKalb co-op senior Alyssa Lopez had edged Mirski by that margin to win the all-around on Friday.
“The five-one-hundredths-of-a-point nemesis,” said Mikrut-Doyle, alluding to the gap between Carmel’s state runner-up team and Addison Trail’s state championship team in 1991.
Doyle was a sophomore then.
“I am so happy for Kristin, so pleased she went 4-for-4 today,” Mikrut-Doyle added after Friday’s prelims.
Mirski was smack dab in the middle of Carmel’s smashing vault show Saturday night. Junior teammate Sarah Cohen-Smith wowed all with her first-place and super-high layout Yurchenko (career-best 9.875); classmate Lauren Feely took third in the event (9.8), right behind Mirski.
Cohen-Smith praised her teammates after her powerful launch and oh-so-clean landing.
“They were so supportive, so encouraging,” she said. “Hearing them say, ‘You’ve got this; give it your all,’ was helpful, what I needed to hear.”
Feely, fifth in the all-around (37.925), heard rounds and rounds of applause after her first-place 9.575 on beam Saturday night. She also bowed for a fifth-place medal (9.55, floor).
Friday night, she talked vault.
Carmel, after all, had qualified 1-2-3 in the event for the next night’s finals: Feely (9.85), Mirski (9.8), Cohen-Smith (9.75).
“Our saying is, ‘Don’t think, just do,’ ” Feely said. “We love vault, and we also love saying, right before vault, ‘We can do this.’ We let muscle memory take over.”
Corsairs senior Anna Brandmeier, 10th on bars (8.85), was the first Corsair to utter ‘Don’t think, just do.’ She said it at a practice, at the Gymnastics Spot in Mundelein, before the start of the state series last month.
“We got together for one of our little motivational talks,” Brandmeier recalled Friday night. “I said that to the team because, at that point of the season, you should be able to do the things we do in our sleep.”
Osowski performed a rousing 9.225 routine on beam — as the Corsairs’ lead-off competitor in the event in Friday’s prelims. It ended up counting as the team’s fourth score.
Osowski went 3-for-3 on beam in the state series.
A “Z” came through for Carmel on floor Friday. Senior Jen Zeller, third in the Corsairs’ floor lineup, got dynamic (9.525) after shaking off a rough beam routine (two falls).
What also made her floor score crucial: Carmel’s first two floor performers stumbled a bit.
“Jen,” Mikrut-Doyle said, “came back beautifully for us on floor. The smile she showed afterward said it all; she was happy for what she did for the team. Her teammates … Each uses ‘loyal’ to describe Jen.”
Friday at state was all about Carmel, the team.
Saturday at state was all about Corsairs, the individual stars.
A proud Mikrut-Doyle looked ahead on Friday, after her mighty and graceful club had scored 150.925 points, well ahead of second-place Stevenson’s prelim total of 148.925.
“They deserve to go for individual glory (on Saturday),” said Mikrut-Doyle, “because they had worked so hard to achieve glory for the team and school.”
Flips: Carmel Catholic went 4-0 in duals in 2011-12, upping Doyle’s nine-year record at the school to 60-3 (.952). … The Corsairs won five invite championships (at five invites) this winter, plus regional, sectional and state titles. … Nicole Gluzinski and Steve Bell served as Carmel assistants. … Mirski and Zeller were co-captains.
Quote-worthy I: “That’s great, so great! I carpooled with her to practice! She’s a safe driver, a good driver.” — Osowski, after hearing Mirski had been named senior gymnast of the year at state last weekend.
Quote-worthy II: “Our entire team was dedicated, committed. Winter break, nobody took a day off. We came in, practiced hard.” — Cohen-Smith, after winning vault at Saturday’s state finals.
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