O'Connor hopping right along for Broncos

As a freshman, Barrington boys gymnast Kellen O'Connor scored a 9.55 on the floor to finish third at the state meet. A year later, O'Connor finds himself on the cusp of surpassing that total.

With only two days of practice under his belt after a spring break trip to Paris, O'Connor scored a 9.5 on floor for the third straight meet. A bad habit is the only thing keeping him from breaking his personal-best.

"There are a few little hops (in my routine) that are unnecessary," O'Connor said. "(My teammates) even joke and call it the 'Kellen-hop' because whenever I land I have a totally unnecessary little bounce."

O'Connor added an 8.5 vault as the Broncos scored 119.9 after hosting Prospect and Fremd in a Mid-Suburban League triangular.

The Knights recorded a 143.9 with consistent scoring across all six events. Prospect's scores ranged from a 22.7 on high bar to a 26.8 on vault, with the other four events falling in between.

Sophomore Joe Napoleon set career-highs on pommel horse (7.0) and high bar (8.6). Teammate Chris Mattes scored a 50.4 to win all-around honors for Prospect, which has struggled to increase its score beyond the mid-140s.

"We need everyone to hit," said Mattes. "We need to have everyone have a clean routine. We have one person who gets a rally going and then the next two (struggle)."

Prospect coach Pat Kivland was not happy his team's execution and said the focus in practice will be altered.

"We were very sloppy," Kivland said. "I think we need to get back to doing routines. We're better than we were before (spring break) … but the performance is not better."

Fremd posted a 126.7 despite struggling on pommel without top scorer Mike Kowalenko.

Senior Keith English tied his own school record with a 9.5 vault and his 7.2 on rings helped the Vikings record a 3-point improvement in the event.

"I was surprised because we all stepped up a little," English said. "What we lacked in pommel we made up for elsewhere."

Fremd sophomore Dante Digangi threw a new trick on vault and scored a 9.1 despite a 0.6-point deduction.