Palatine not satisfied with early run of success
As the defending state champs, the Palatine boys gymnastics team isn't satisfied with posting scores higher than what most area schools can only dream about.
The Pirates have scored more than 150 points in four of their five meets this year, including a 155.8 on Tuesday for a pair of Mid-Suburban League wins over Conant and Rolling Meadows.
However, Palatine is far from content.
"Every single meet we have times where we're really angry with ourselves, even when we get 150s," said Pirates junior Andre Gatorano. "I think we have a lot of room for improvement and I think we all have a lot more potential for bigger routines."
Senior Matt Eckardt won the all-around with a 55.2 for Palatine (6-0, 4-0 West), which lacks the depth of a year ago and has to rely heavily on its last three gymnasts in each event.
Gatorano's performance is especially crucial on the high bar, which has been the Pirates' lone weakness.
"It's fixed," Gatorano said after scoring a 7.9. "Now we can finally move on and amp it up."
Spring break is next week but the Pirates won't be resting. They are taking only one day off and even talked Palatine coach Scott Hagel into having practice on Saturday morning before competing in the Rolling Meadows Invitational.
Conant (3-1, 3-1 West) broke 140 for the first time this season with an almost 4-point improvement on the pommel horse from a week ago. The Cougars finished at 142.5 and got key all-around performances from senior John Snyder (51.6) and freshman Steve Rink (46.8).
"I guess we had more adrenaline pumping to start the meet," Snyder said. "It's a big meet against Palatine and we knew we had to step up."
Conant coach Paul Kim was happy to see the progress.
"We had a much better meet," he said. "This is where I thought we would be last meet, but we're getting there. Hopefully the key guys will be consistent from this point on and continue to build on this.
Meadows (0-6, 0-4 East) scored 112.5 with senior Riley Albers and freshman Marc Herff leading the way. Albers had 36.4 all-around points while Herff scored 37.4.