Sports
LT's Cozza 3rd On Floor, Vault In Girls Gymnastics State Finals
Taylor Southworth in action for the Lions during Friday's preliminaries; Cozza performs well Saturday.
The uneven parallel bars have not been very good to Carolyn Cozza and the rest of the girls gymnastics team. As for Cozza's vault and floor exercise, that's a completely different story.
A handful of stumbles and falls on the bars during the Hinsdale Central sectional kept the Lions from advancing to the state finals for the fifth straight year. The Lions were the runner-up to Carmel last season and Carmel won once again this year with a 149.450.
While the disappointment of failing to qualify for state lingered with the team, Cozza and Taylor Southworth had to quickly put the team behind them and turn their focus to individual success since both advanced to Palatine for last week's IHSA State Finals.
Cozza posted the fourth best score on vault (9.7) and floor (9.5) in Friday's preliminaries, and then came back even stronger on Saturday, tying for third place on vault with a 9.75 and capturing the third-place medal on floor with a 9.7.
"It turned out even better than I actually hoped," she said. "It's an amazing feeling because floor is something I've struggled on all year, but now I've got it going and to do that routine felt amazing. I'm really happy with how it ended."
It also helped erase some of the disappointment brought on by not having the opportunity to compete as the whole team.
"It was difficult not having the team here," she said. "They motivate you and get the adrenalin going. I still thought I adjusted thought, and it went pretty well."
Competing in front of a big crowd, among the best gymnasts in the state and with titles on the line, did not faze Cozza.
"At first it was really intimidating with the big crowd," she said. "I just did a good job of channeling my energy and focusing."
Cozza's troubles on bars continued in Friday's preliminaries where she scored an 8.05. She also had an 8.55 on beam and finished in 27th place in the all-around with a 35.8. Still, those results were distant memories after snatching a pair of third-place medals on vault and floor.
"I was really happy with how I did," she said. "And I was happy with how we both represented the school."
Southworth didn't move past Friday's preliminaries. She took 18th in the
all-around with a 36.4. Her scores included a 9.45 on vault, 9.225 on floor, 9.125 on beam and 8.6 on bars.
"We just wanted to come here and just put it all out there on the floor because it's our last meet," Southworth said. "We just tried to go hard and not leave anything behind."
