Gymnastics: ‘Sister act’ has Oswego co-op poised for a big season

The Oswego co-op girls gymnastics team is a true sister act this season.

And it’s a must-see act that features a level of talent and ambition that could have it heading towards the state’s biggest stage when all is said and done with the 2021-2022 season.

Senior Amelia Soriaga and sophomore Hailey Soriaga, junior Kylie Phillip and freshman Sam Phillip and junior Kassidy Locke and freshman Annabelle Locke are the program’s three sets of siblings, and the team will be leaning heavily on scores from the Soriagas and Phillips.

“We only lost one senior so we pretty much have the core group back and a couple of newcomers coming from club who are very talented,” Oswego coach Amanda Zielske said. “I feel like this year we have four or five girls who could be all-around contenders. Last year we started that way but with injuries and different things happening we had a couple girls just be specialists on one or two events. There will definitely be some competition for who could be all-around the most.”

After reaching a team score of 140.8 in its last full season in 2019-2020 and then peaking at a 137.825 in the spring, the program is healthy and talented with a lot of high-quality kids interested as the program boasts 27 competitors and two managers. Depth is an asset and it’s already paying off as Oswego opened the season by winning Hinsdale South’s Hornet Thanksgiving Invite on Nov. 27 with 134.875 points and eight gymnasts contributing to that total.

Sam Phillip and Kelsie Freundt led the team to its first invite victory. Phillip took second on vault (9.1) and second on floor (8.95) and added a 7.9 on bars while Freundt tied for third on beam (8.6), fourth on floor (8.8) and scored an 8.85 on vault. Sophie Perez led the team on bars (8.425) while Kylie Phillip, Hailey Soriaga, Amelia Soriaga, Sarah Mustafa and Olivia Valenti scored in helping Oswego capture the 8-team title. Other varsity team members include senior Gwen Berenyi and junior Lexie Benavides. Junior Emily Thomas, who is particularly strong on bars, isn’t competing but serving as a manager this year while she recovers from injuries from the diving season. The team also lost Kailey Porrey, who graduated.

“The whole team is a huge family,” Kylie Philip said. “That’s my favorite part. Even if you’re having a bad day you have a practice to come to and I love to see some of my favorite people. The support is endless and it’s amazing the friends you make. The freshmen look up to the seniors like big sisters.”

There’s no questioning the last couple years have deeply impacted kids. One of the ways they’ve pushed through the negativity and uncertainty of the times is by doing what they love in gymnastics.

“Over the offseason many of us were practicing at the Oswego Park District,” Kylie Phillip said. “Everyone has bonded so well. Even with the age difference everyone fits in great.”

As much as gym time is for polishing up routines and working on new skills it’s for laughing and smiling, supporting and helping motivate one another and even escaping from school work and other stresses.

“I think it’s important for us to go out and have fun at every meet and I think that helps us do better,” Amelia Soriaga said. “I did a lot of work in the offseason working on consistency and cleaning up my skills and I think all of that training is going to help me continue to do that. The team is filling up together nicely. It’s a close knit team that really has fun together so we want to make it a good season.”

So far, so good.

“The energy is really high in practice and I love seeing the new routines,” Zielske said. “We have some good new floor routines and I love seeing those. The biggest thing was having that audience in the gym again. They loved that at Hinsdale and hearing all that cheering. They didn’t get that last year. When we did the team talk our whole goal is to have fun and to show to it off because no one has seen us compete.”

Free advice/good deed: Support the girls and the military by coming out to Oswego High School on Dec.2 9 as its Tumble for the Troops Invite returns.