ETHS Freshman Joins State's Elite On Balance Beam

Evanston IL

14 February, 2022

2:12 AM

Description

You might describe Ella Eovaldi as one of those people who is modest --- to a fault. She didn't believe she was even the best gymnast in Evanston's practice gym when the season first started. She discounted her chances of advancing out of the regional to the sectional, and her coaches couldn't convince her she had any shot at making it to the Illinois High School Association state finals after sectional competition concluded last week at the Mundelein Sectional. But the Evanston freshman proved she belongs with the state's elite --- and might have proved it to herself, too --- by capturing a confidence-building at-large berth on balance beam. With a season-best score of 8.925, Eovaldi kept her season alive on beam and will move on to the IHSA state meet competition scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Palatine High School. She's the first Evanston female gymnast to advance to State since Jasmine Stone in 2000, and the first ETHS freshman to make it since Liz Iacuzzi on uneven bars way back in 1996. "We knew the judging would be harder at the sectional because it always is. But Ella just turned it on and did incredibly well," said Evanston first-year head coach Michael Spevack. "It's unbelievably difficult for a freshman to make it to State because the talent level (of the competition) is so high. I remember telling her at the regional that she might make it to sectional and she said no, I won't. Then at the sectional --- even though she was tied for 3rd (at large) and the top 12 make it --- she said there was no way she was going to make it to State and there was no need for her to keep practicing. "She knows a lot of these older girls from club and she thought she didn't belong with them. In gymnastics it easy to get into that mindset of comparing yourself to the others and thinking you can't do what they do. But we assured her that she belonged --- and she proved that she deserved to be at State. And now I get to see her perform with the best of the best in the state of Illinois!" Besides her state-qualifying effort, Eovaldi posted solid scores in all-around (33.35), floor exercise (8.475), vault (8.45) and uneven bars (8.50) but fell short of qualifying on those events. Freshman teammate Tait Hansen scored a 7.85 on beam and 8.40 on vault in her sectional appearance. Part of Eovaldi's reluctance to rank herself with the state's elite came from the fact that, after competing against her own age group as a club gymnast, she knew that she'd be up against older and more experienced competition when she entered high school. She joined an Evanston squad that would have been led by another outstanding individual who might have been on track to be that elusive state qualifier, Ava Axelrood. But the senior standout suffered a fractured heel on a fall off the beam two weeks into the season and missed almost all of the year. That left Eovaldi in the spotlight. "I'm just a freshman and I always knew a lot of others were better than I was because I trained with them," she said. "I knew there'd be a lot of hard competition in high school. And I'm pretty shocked that I made it to State. Beam was my last event (at the sectional) and the girls from other schools were coming up to me and saying omigod, you'll make it. But I didn't find out until Thursday night (2 days) later when all the sectionals were over." Ironically, both Spevack and Eovaldi figured the freshman's best chance to advance would be on bars. The ETHS coach added a few upgrades to her beam routine, just for the experience but without the expectation the freshman would execute at such a high level. "We added two new skills at the last minute for beam, not a roundoff back (dismount) but a roundoff back full, and also changed another twist," said Spevack. "That changed her routine to a 10.0 star value --- and she nailed it. It was go big or go home, and needless to say, Ella went big. "When it comes to success on the beam, it's not necessarily about having big skills, it's who stays up there. I can't even see the ceiling on Ella. She's so talented, anything can happen when she competes. She's been our MVP this year, without question." "Balance beam is NOT my favorite event --- by far," said Eovaldi. "I was more focused on bars. I had a good release move on bars, but then I couldn't do it. And I was really mad about it when I realized I couldn't do it. So I took a walk with a friend of mine, then came back and went right to the beam to work on that dismount." The rest was all about making history.