New Trier’s Maeve Murdock performs her balance beam routine in Friday’s session at the state meet. She ended up tied for first place. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER
Maeve Murdock has to tote an item to her Spanish class at New Trier and talk about it for an upcoming assignment.
The freshman gymnast earned a special item at the state gymnastics meet at Palatine High School on Feb. 18. It’s shiny and round.
And it’s … oro.
Or Spanish for “gold.”
Murdock tied another gymnast for first place on the balance beam with a score of 9.425 in the event finals. She became the first Trevian in program history to collect the sport’s most coveted prize.
“I’ll show that in my class and talk about gymnastics,” Murdock said. “It’s not hard for me to talk about gymnastics.”
But she had to wait for the gold medal to arrive by mail, because the other gymnast who scored a 9.425 on beam at state has the gold medal that was presented at the state meet.
“I let her take it home; I was fine with that,” Murdock said.
Here’s where the Maeve Murdock story turns sweet — and perfect. The other gold-medal winner in the event was Maine South sophomore Caleigh Pistorius, who is none other than the daughter of Murdock’s NT coach, Jen Pistorius.
There they stood together, Murdock and Caleigh Pistorius, on the highest step of an awards podium.
Jen Pistorius: proud mom and proud coach.
At the same time.
“Pretty cool,” the coach said. “Maeve’s routine was great. You couldn’t hear her feet land [on the beam or on her dismount]. She was floating, and she was as light as a feather. After her dismount, the whole place went crazy. Maeve was the 10th finalist (out of 11) on beam, after my daughter had completed her routine. I remember thinking, after Maeve’s dismount and while waiting for the judges’ score, ‘Please, please, please — let there be a tie for first place’.
“In a perfect world, Maeve and my daughter would finish in a tie for first place.”
Coach Pistorius’ world was perfect on Feb. 18.
“I never heard the applause after my routine,” said Murdock, who spent more than an hour warming up her routine well before the event finals and practiced it some more in a brief session before the start of the beam segment.
“I didn’t hear anything because I was still in a zone.”
The best visual at state, without question, was the sight of New Trier sophomore Emma Jane Rohrer celebrating her uneven-bars routine during the preliminaries on Feb. 17. With an earlobe-to-earlobe smile, Rohrer jumped straight up immediately following her dismount, each of her limbs going every which way.
She landed, feet first.
Dancing moves ensued.
A 9.5 score had something to do with her rapturous reaction.
“Her silly, goofy, happy dance,” Coach Pistorius said. “Her celebrations make the whole team smile, make the spectators smile; she even makes the judges smile. What makes her celebrations so special, so fun, is how serious Emma Jane is before doing them. It’s such a contrast, seeing her break out with her expressions after focusing so hard while competing.”
Rohrer — who finished 16th in the all-around (36.55) at state — emerged as one of three Trevians (along with Murdock and freshman Avery Faulkner) to advance to the event finals on Feb. 18. Rohrer ended up in a tie for third place (another 9.5) on bars with all-around champion Nikki Baars of Prairie Ridge co-op.
Rohrer took out her Pak Salto move on bars and added a blind-half out of a giant.
The balance beam was her main event last winter.
“Bars is now my thing,” said Rohrer, also a serious student and a serious flutist.
As for her delightful moves following her sharp, high-scoring routines, Rohrer compared them to what happens following an … accident in the kitchen.
“Like a hand touching a hot stove … I respond quickly,” a beaming Rohrer said. “In gymnastics, it’s my time, my opportunity, to express myself.
“I’m actually pretty shy when I’m in classes at school.”
Out of the nine schools competing at state last weekend, New Trier finished fifth (145.1 points). It marked the Trevians’ 11th top-eight showing at state since the 1982-83 season — and fourth under Pistorius since the 2011-12 season.
How young was NT’s varsity in 2016-17?
Only one senior — Ally Smith — competed at state last weekend. The other Trevs, in addition to Murdock, Rohrer and Faulkner: freshman Rachel Zun and sophomore Zoey Spangler. Only two freshmen finished in the top 13 in the all-around at state. Faulkner (13th, 37.1) was one of them, behind Glenbrook South rookie Jenna Hartley (eighth place, 37.5).
Faulkner also tied two others for fourth place on floor exercise (9.525) and took sixth on beam (9.1).
“It feels very exciting, having almost everyone on our team here for the first time,” said Rohrer, who, like many of her teammates and friends from other schools, trains at American Academy of Gymnastics in Wheeling. “Fresh faces. We’re so young. I tried my best to give them advice, to help them prepare for the noisy crowd.
“I do like big crowds at meets.”
And it is clearly mutual.
Notable: New Trier, Glenbrook South and Carmel Catholic all competed at the Stevenson Sectional on Feb. 6, with South’s Titans emerging as champions (145.45). Their finishes at state last weekend: Glenbrook South (school-record-tying third place, school-record 146.675 points), Carmel Catholic (fourth, 145.1) and New Trier (fifth, 145.1). Prairie Ridge co-op (148.8) captured its third state championship in a row. … New Trier freshman Maeve Murdock and Maine South sophomore Caleigh Pistorius certainly didn’t let the intense spotlight of the event finals get to them on Feb. 18. And each upped her position considerably in the beam standings — before sharing the gold medal on beam, Murdock had qualified seventh (9.275) and Pistorius eighth (9.2) from the state preliminaries on Feb. 17.
Emma Jane Rohrer of the Trevians jumps for joy following her bars routine in Friday’s session. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER
Emma Jane Rohrer performs her bars routine. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL LERNER