When the smoke clears … it's a tie
Go ahead and circle Friday, April 18, on your calendar.
That's when the Glenbard North and Wheaton Co-op boys gymnastics teams will resume their battle for DuPage Valley Conference supremacy in the DVC championship at Glenbard East.
The two schools met on Monday night in Wheaton -- but nothing was resolved.
Even personal best performances from Glenbard North's Tyler DeAnda and Wheaton Co-op's Tim Krueger weren't enough to lead either team to victory.
After two hours of competition Glenbard North and Wheaton Co-op tied with 149.9 points apiece.
"I don't think I've ever seen a tie in that regard before," said Wheaton Co-op coach Chad Downie. "It was a good meet, a fun meet and a typical conference meet against Glenbard North for us. I think we only lost by a couple tenths in the DVC to them last year so we have a good rivalry and will have to get them at the conference meet."
Glenbard North led Wheaton Co-op by 2.3 points heading into the final two events: parallel bars and high bar. The Panthers finished before Wheaton Co-op closed on high bar.
"We knew the score after the fourth rotation," Krueger said. "Coach Downie took us aside and told us if we want to win we have to hit our routines."
Senior Clark Kessery was the final Wheaton gymnast to compete on high bar. He knew the score was close, but unbeknownst to him was the fact that a score of 8.1 or higher would give his team the victory. Kessery missed a skill and settled for an 8.
"I knew it was close and had my routine but that's just the way it came out," he said. "It's just a tie."
It was the third meet in four days for Wheaton Co-op, which had a season-high 151.975 Friday at the Hinsdale Central invitational.
"I think it's really good training for the state meet," Downie said. "Hopefully we'll be ready when that time comes around and hopefully we'll be much better then. too."
Krueger set a personal best on parallel bars with a dazzling 9.8. Krueger also won floor, vault, all-around and tied for top honors on still rings.
It was the first meet in 12 days for Glenbard North, since the March 5 District 87 meet.
"I thought we had a great meet tonight," said Glenbard North coach Edsel Clark. "We had about a 3½-point jump from our previous meet and apparently the time off was good for us to put routines together."
DeAnda set a career high in the all-around with a 51.7. He won the high bar with a 9.1.
"Overall I felt pretty good out there," DeAnda said. "We had been working hard in practice, so it was good to compete tonight and I hit all my events except for p-bars."
Ryan Vanderack tied for first on pommel horse and was third on high bar, Ryan Wiser was second on vault and third in floor and Tyler Arl tied for first on rings and was second on p- bars for the Panthers.