Rybar shrugs off pain, Glenbard S.

There was a record-setting performance in Downers Grove on Thursday night. Unfortunately for Glenbard South, it wasn't a Raider who put on the incredible boys gymnastics show.

The spotlight was on Downers Grove North's Doug Rybar, who won all six events while notching a personal-best and school-best all-around score of 55.7. His memorable performance made it easy for the Trojans to claim a 150.9-112.7 victory.

"It feels really good after coming off a shoulder injury," Rybar said. "The pain went away tonight. It usually hurts on high bar and rings, so it's nice to get through without it bothering me."

Glenbard South was only competing in its second full meet of the season and scored much higher than the 97.4 it totaled in the District 87 meet on March 5. Still, the Raiders could only muster a few third-place finishes with Mike Zahradnik on vault, Paul Orbegoso on pommel horse and Pat Williams on parallel bars.

"We had some improvements here, but we just need to get some consistency," Raiders coach Steve Young said. "We started out on pommel horse and hit pretty well and did a pretty good job on floor, and those are our two best events."

Rybar wasn't the only one who enjoyed a record-breaking evening. Williams had the best parallel bars routine of his career.

"I've been working hard in practice to do the best I can and that was the highest I've ever had," Williams said. "Overall I was pretty happy tonight. Hit my set on p-bars, vault was all right, the only thing I was unhappy with was high bar."

Zahradnik, who scored a 36.2 in the all-around, also was happy with his effort.

"I was pretty successful on floor, pommel was a good start, vault was pretty good and high bar I had a dismount problem, but otherwise it was good," he said.

Senior Kevin Murphy, whose top score was a 7.8 on vault, led the Raiders in the all-around with a 37.

"I thought I had some good sets tonight," he said. "I was happy with floor for the most part except for one move. I didn't mess up too much tonight. I'm really pretty happy with my scores."

Scoring gaps between the Raiders and their opponents has been frequent in the early season, mainly because there aren't any cupcakes on their schedule. The Raiders have already seen some of the top teams in the state in Addison Trail, Glenbard North, Glenbard West and York, and Saturday they'll see Lake Park, Palatine and Wheaton co-op.

"We're a little behind, but as the season goes on I think we'll get better," Williams said. "There are some good teams out there, but I still think we have potential to do pretty well this season."