Annabella Simpson 4th on vault; DeKalb-Sycamore swim team wins sectional: Saturday’s Daily Chronicle roundup

Girls gymnastics

IHSA State Championship: At Palatine, DeKalb-Sycamore senior Annabella Simpson was fourth on the vault Saturday to earn a medal.

After finishing outside the top 10 in the all-around Friday, Simpson said she was less nervous this time around.

“I’m really excited,” Simpson said. “I worked so hard to get here, and now that I’m finally here I’m really happy how it turned out.”

Simpson posted a 9.575 to edge out Vernon Hill’s Livy Tran (9.55). Hersey’s Sabrina Nemcek won the event with a 9.75.

Simpson posted a personal best 9.6 on the vault Friday. She became the seventh Barb to earn multiple state medals after taking third on the beam in 2022.

“Even though my score was not as high I definitely thought my layout (Yurchenko) was a little bit better (than Friday) but it is what it is, and I’m still happy with how it ended,” Simpson said. ”I was hoping maybe I could a higher score than yesterday, but that’s Ok. I’m still happy.”

* Bill Stone contributed to this report.

Boys swimming

Byron Regional: At Byron, The DeKalb-Sycamore co-op won a sectional title for the third straight year, posting a 279.5 team score to top Hononegah by more than 30 points and send six automatic qualifiers to next week’s state tournament.

Jacob Gramer qualified in four events for the Barbs. He won the 50-yard freestyle in 21.44 seconds and 100 butterfly in 49.29. He also was on the winning 200 medley relay with Kevin Sullivan, Calvin VanderSchee and Max Palacios and the winning 200 free relay with VanderSchee, Palacios and Evan Johnson.

Sullivan was the 200 individual medley champ in 2:01.24. Palacios won the 100 free in 48.5. Last year, only Gramer and the 200 free relay qualified.

Automatic bids went to the winners of each event. At-large qualifiers and seeds will be announced later.

The state championships starts Friday at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont.