Pirates getting back on track

Palatine openly admits that its boys gymnastics depth pales in comparison to the team of a year ago that won a state championship.

The Vic Avigliano Mustang Gymnastics Invitational offers a unique structure where each team has six gymnasts each perform in one only event. With all-around standouts Matt Eckardt and Andre Gatorano on the sidelines for most of the day, Palatine showed that its depth is better than advertised.

The Pirates won the meet Saturday at Rolling Meadows for the second straight year led by Gatorano, who took first on floor while posting a career-best 9.6. He credited an adjustment for upping his score.

"I found out that I didn't have a requirement, so I just put it in and it helped everything out," Gatorano said. "It's really dumb and really simple. I needed another B trick, which is a front or a back flip. That was it."

Eckardt, who took second on parallel bars with a 9.1, was surprised Palatine posted a 53.50 to surpass last year's meet-winning total and offered a simple explanation.

"Everybody just hit their events that they needed to," he said. "We might not have the strongest people in each event but they just came through in this meet."

Danny Weiss took home third place on the horizontal bars, David Irsay placed fourth on the pommel, Luke Schuster finished fourth on rings and Eric Floberg took fifth on the vault for Palatine.

Prospect placed third but coach Pat Kivland was bemoaning missed opportunities.

"We still had good enough gymnasts in here to win this meet," he said. "I figure we lost about 2.5 points in the last three events but we still scored 49.9."

Despite having sub-par routines in five events, Kivland was excited about one set.

"Mike Behun on rings was our most impressive kid today," said Kivland. "He can't do his dismount yet, but he scored a 8.95 and he's my third man in rings."

Fremd scored 45.2 and took 10th behind several breakout performances. Career-bests included Brandon Trostrud (8.6) on the parallel bar, Mike Kowalenko (8.1) on pommel and Dave Allison (5.6) on rings. But the Vikings got really energized after Keith English landed a 9.4 routine on vault.

"I was very excited," English said. "I turned around all pumped up and there was just an eruption from them."

The impressive vault even drew praise from Conant, which finished 11th overall with 45.1 points.

Cougar Clinton Martin recorded a 9.3 to take second on the vault after struggling in warmups with his approach and foot placement.

"I love this meet," he said. "It's amazing."

Schaumburg finished 12th behind several quality performances. Ryan Senderak led the way with a ninth-place finish on p-bars. Stephen Long took 10th on the vault, while Tim Whelan and Rafael Fernandez took 11th in pommel and floor, respectively.

Stevenson finished in 14th led by Bryan Pusateri's second-place performance on the rings.

Mike Jachura was 10th on rings while Ed Hwang took 12th on pommel for 15th place Elk Grove.

Steve Dugan had a 9.1 vault to take fourth for Buffalo Grove, which finished 16th.

Hoffman Estates was 17th while Barrington took 21st. Libertyville finished 23rd.