Kurfirst, Lions finish first  at sectional

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Lyons Township High School's Kelsy Kurfirst competes on the uneven bars, during the Hinsdale Central Sectional meet Monday. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media

Updated: March 11, 2012 8:08AM

First place for Kelsy Kurfirst suits the Lyons Township freshman just fine.

Kurfirst continued her remarkable first season by winning the all-around title and three other individual events at the Hinsdale Central Sectional Monday night. Kurfirst scored 37.90 on the all-around to beat Hinsdale Central junior Erin Morgan (37.125) for the second time in nine days after Kurfirst defeated Morgan to win the all-around at the West Suburban Conference Silver Division meet.

It was the second consecutive victory in the all-around for Kurfirst in head-to-head competition with Morgan after Morgan won the dual meet Jan. 4.

Morgan and Kurfirst (9.725 each) tied for the sectional title on the vault, but Kurfirst won on the uneven bars (9.55) and floor exercise (9.575).

“I never would have thought at the beginning of the year that I would win the sectional,” Kurfirst said. “This gives me a lot of confidence, but we have a lot ahead of us for the state meet.”

LT (144.05) won at least its eighth sectional title in school history and claimed its second in three years to advance to the state meet Feb. 17-18 at Palatine. The conference runner-up held off the host Red Devils (138.95) despite having three falls on the balance beam.

“We had some painful miscalculations,” LT coach Kari Karubas-Powell said. “The girls know you have to leave an event behind you and go to the next event to make tenths.”

The battle for the all-around title was expected to include Oswego Regional champion Jamie Valla of Andrew, but the junior returning state qualifier injured her Achilles in practice last week and could not compete in the sectional. Hinsdale Central sophomore Cayley Brenk (36.00) took third on all-around.

“Kelsy is an amazing competitor,” Powell said. “She still has more potential. She can still add skills to her routines. I hope in the next two weeks of practice we can add some difficulties before the state meet.”

Morgan and Kurfirst’s vault scores were the highest of the meet. Morgan was the runner-up on floor (9.35), where she finished 13th last season at the state meet.

“My bars (8.975 for third) were not my best event. I excell more at the tumbling aspect. I think I did what I could (on bars),” Morgan said. “On beam (9.075 for second), I told myself, ‘Be confident and make it though the wobbles. I knew I could keep on the beam.’ I feel very confident. This was one of my best meets of the season.’’

Kurfirst found out about Valla’s injury during the pre-meet warm-up.

“I saw that she was in a lot of pain. You hate to see have a rough injury, but there was a lot of competition tonight,” Kurfirst said.