A wide open year for Lake County gymnasts

Year No. 57 of the high school boys gymnastics season is shaping up to be another very good one for Lake County teams this spring.

Palatine shocked everybody in the boys gymnastics community by winning the 56th annual state meet last season, and the 2008 campaign could be just as unpredictable and up for grabs at the Elite Eight this May.

Libertyville has been a fixture at the state meet in recent history as the Wildcats brought home the third-place trophy in 2006 before placing sixth in the state last season.

But the Wildcats will be hard-pressed to match that same success this year as the graduation of state finalists Scott Brzezinski and Sean Somers has left some holes and inexperience in their lineup.

In spite of the losses to graduation, Libertyville should still be very competitive in the Independent Conference along with rival Stevenson, which should be much-improved with a year of experience under its belts. Lake Park is the top ranked team in the conference.

"I'm looking for the most improved award, but our team is very inexperienced so we'll see how things go," joked Libertyville coach Curt Austin. "At the end of the season we could definitely be a spoiler for some of the teams out there."

The Wildcats do have an abundance of senior leadership returning this year with all-arounders Greg Wilhelm and Reed Stewart expected to play key roles for the squad.

Coming off a great wrestling season, senior Everett Indart will compete for Libertyville on still rings with support from teammate Sean Hamlin on vault.

Senior John Lorenz gained a lot of valuable experience at state while teammate Jackson Kontny is a key cog to the Wildcats' machine.

Junior Phil Pickar is taking a year off from competition, but junior Ashton Coulson should be a huge contributor after being Libertyville's No. 3 all-arounder last season.

"Ashton is extremely talented and hopefully if we get him off to a good start he'll be an impact player for us this year," said Austin, who was a two-time state tumbling champion. "Greg (Wilhelm) is probably the most improved gymnasts of all the kids on the team and he'll be a big part of the team."

Don't look now, but here comes Stevenson gradually working its way back up the state polls as the Patriots have an elite gymnast in sophomore all-arounder Lukasz Adamczyk to build around.

As a freshman, Adamczyk placed fourth in the state finals with a 9.45 on pommel horse after placing 17th in the state all-around competition with 51.95 points. Adamczyk finished second to Brzezinski at conference in the all-around.

Not only does Stevenson coach Mike Farina have the luxury of Adamczyk in the all-around to fall back on, but he has another strong all-arounder in junior Bryan Pusateri to help lead his young team.

Pusateri qualified for the 2007 state meet on both vault and parallel bars.

The Patriots' program rolled to three straight state titles from 2002 to 2004.

After struggling the past few seasons, Mundelein hopes to show some dramatic improvement this spring as former coach Eric Liva has returned after a two-year hiatus as Elk Grove's assistant coach.

The Mustangs won six titles from 1989 to 2000 under former coach Doug Foerch before placing second when Liva arrived on the scene in 2003.

Liva's teams placed seventh in 2004 and third in 2005 before his brief move to Mid-Suburban League member Elk Grove.

"I'm very happy to be back and it is a great thing to be working with (athletic director) Perry Wilhelm and (principal) John Ahlgrim in particular because they are very pro-gymnastics," said Liva, who coached a successful Hinsdale South program earlier in his career. "In the Independent Conference I think Lake Park is definitely the team to beat and they have a shot at the top eight in the state."

The Mustangs have numerous senior specialists returning with Rick Fox, Paolo Apuli, Brian Arnold, Nathan Kraus, Nyles Lantin, Mike Wheeles and Ted Sullivan expected to compete on about three events apiece. Seniors James Rosal and Sean Hall are pommel horse specialists for Mundelein.

The addition of freshmen all-arounders Scott Marthensen and Grant Ley from the Gym Spot in Mundelein should also give the Mustangs' scoring a real boost.

"We're looking to build on what we had from last year and I'm confident saying that we're already better than we were last year so that is a good thing," Liva said. "We don't have a realistic shot to make state as a team, but we're going to try to get some of these seniors to state because we didn't have any last year."

It will probably be a long and difficult road to return to its previous status, but Liva thinks he can get the Mundelein program headed in the right direction over time.

"We have 38 guys on the team, which is way up from last year, and we're working on building the program," said Liva. "We've got a really good freshman class, we've got some quality sophomores, and we'll see where we go from there."

On the state-wide level, Lincoln-Way co-op and York have a good shot at hoisting the state championship trophy in May.

Palatine should be a top-three trophy contender again along with Glenbard West and Downers Grove North.