Prospect 2nd at Conant
With the end of the boys gymnastic season quickly approaching, the Prospect Knights are peaking at just the right time.
Led by senior Chris Mattes, who finished second in all-around competition, Prospect took second place behind Lincoln-Way East coop (158.81) at the fifth annual Ed Raymond Invite hosted by Conant on Friday night.
Even with a season-best score of 148.99, Mattes saw plenty of room for improvement.
"We were a little shaky on p-bars and had kind of low scores on both rings and high bar," Mattes said. "So those are three events we can still get more points on."
Sophomore Gilbert Bentley recorded a career-best 8.7 on floor for the Knights, who have increased their score the last two meets after stagnating at 145 for most of the season.
"We went through a two-week period where we were adapting tricks into routines and not doing well," Prospect coach Pat Kivland said. "I think we're starting to move now. But we'll see. These next few weeks will be critical. But I think we're going to come out of this big time."
Conant scored 145.69 and finished third with senior Jon Snyder winning parallel bars and finishing third all-around.
"We still have some work to do," Snyder said. "We have to get up there a little more. We had a couple good events but we need to get more consistent."
Cougars coach Paul Kim was very optimistic coming into the night but once again, pommel horse (22.1) and rings (21.0) were Conant's downfall.
"I thought going in that tonight was going to be the night we would go 150," Kim said. "But pommel and rings are just killing us this year. We just have to do more routines and clean it up."
Palatine took fourth with a 145.11 with its top all-arounder Matt Eckardt out with an injury. Eckardt, who hopes to return next week, missed his second straight meet after hurting himself in practice.
Pirates coach Scott Hagel felt Palatine was a little sloppy but was encouraged by the performance of junior David Irsay. Irsay finished fifth on pommel horse after scoring a season-best 8.45.
"That's going to be a big difference down the road," Hagel said. "We need that score on pommel."
Jason Siebert posted his best all-around score with a 47.95 to lead Buffalo Grove to a fifth-place score of 128.54. Senior Steve Dugan added a career-best 9.4 on floor.
"Our goal is 130," Bison coach Chris Stevens said. "We didn't quite hit it but considering we got 126 on Wednesday, that's a 2.5 point improvement in a couple of days."
Hoffman Estates took eighth with a 123.75. Senior James Lee scored a career-high 8.8 on vault and added an 8.1 on rings. Senior A.J. Jimenez had a 7.25 on pommel and senior Mark Rogalski contributed a 7.0 on rings.
Fremd scored a 115.7 with several members of its varsity squad ineligible after participating in a sophomore invite earlier in the week. Senior Keith English finished first on vault with a 9.45 and sophomore Dante Gigangi scored a 9.2 in the event.
Libertyville finished sixth with a 127.3. All-arounder Ashton Coulson took 10th with a 47.05 and finished second on rings with an 8.75. Reed Stewart added a 9.1 ninth-place finish on vault.
Leyden was ninth after scoring 118.65. Mike Outlaw scored 41.8 as an all-arounder that included a 10th place 8.7 on floor. Ryan Carranza was 15th with a 9.0 on vault.