Hinsdale Central Gymnasts to Compete at State Meet Friday

Hinsdale Central junior Erin Morgan and sophomore Cayley Brenk will head to Palatine High School for the IHSA Girls Gymnastics State Meet Friday to compete alongside the best gymnasts in Illinois and in front of the biggest crowd of the season. 

And they’re not nervous.

“We just go into state with the idea of having fun because we don’t have pressure on us, really,” Brenk said.

Morgan agreed.

“It’s such a different meet than the other meets we’ve been to,” she said, “so I just look at it as more of a fun experience.”

Both Morgan and Brenk competed at state last year, when Hinsdale Central qualified as a team. This year, the two are competing as individuals. Brenk is competing in the vault and all-around competitions while Morgan qualified in every individual event—vault, bars, beam and floor—as well as the all-around.

Morgan finished second in the all-around competition at the Hinsdale Central Sectional on Feb. 6. She took first in vault, second in floor and beam, and third in bars. She's seeded fourth in the vault competition at state, based on her 9.725 sectional score.

“I went into that meet with confidence and told myself I’d have a good meet,” Morgan said of the sectional.

Also happy with her sectional performance was Brenk, who finished third in the all-around.

“I had no falls, which was good for me,” Brenk said. “It was my best meet of the season.”

With a relatively inexperienced team in 2011-12 that had no seniors, Hinsdale Central head coach Kim Estoque was happy with the team’s sectional showing. The team was seeded fifth and finished second behind Lyons Township.

“On vault, we did really well; on bars, everybody hit; on beam, we had only a couple of falls; on floor everybody hit,” Estoque said. “Overall, I thought it was a good meet for everybody.”

Estoque said she wasn’t expecting “a whole lot” from the team this season, but her girls got better as the season went on.

“There was a lot of hope, so that was really nice to see,” Estoque said. “It could be a great team.”

Brenk’s goal Friday is to not have any falls on beam and score a 9.5 on vault. Morgan hopes to make Saturday’s final in at least one event.

The state competition begins at 5 p.m. Friday with prelims. The finals begin at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Visit the IHSA website for more info.