Wheaton places second at invite
The good news recognized by several local boys gymnastics teams during Saturday's Dave Donaldson Invite at Wheaton North is that there's still time remaining to peak.
The bad news is that Lincoln-Way co-op, state champions in 2006, might be already there.
Lincoln-Way co-op easily won Saturday with a 161.270. Wheaton co-op was a distant second with a season-high 152.350, while Glenbard North, Glenbrook South, Glenbard West and Lake Park were bunched from 146.640 to 150.800 for third through sixth place.
Lincoln-Way posted only the fourth score this season that was 160 or better. The team owns the state's high score of 164.10, and only York (161.40) and St. Charles Co-op (160) have also reached the lofty three-digit number this spring.
Wheaton co-op looked like a different team and a lot of that had to do with the unveiling of new routines. Tim Krueger won vault and was fourth in all-around. Freshman Mike Brachman tied for fifth on high bar.
"It's been a couple of weeks since we competed so we threw a wad of new routines tonight," coach Chad Downie said. "I was happy with these guys tonight. They came out and did an awesome job on floor, were wobbly on pommel horse but rings and vault we're solid. We beat some very good teams tonight."
Glenbard North finished second on pommel horse and parallel bars en route to scoring a season-high 150.8. Ryan Vandenack finished seventh on pommel horse and tied for 11th on parallel bars.
"We had a very good parallel bars," Vandenack said. "On horse we were just sloppy and we know we can still do better."
It was no coincidence that Glenbard West finished in fifth place as the Hilltoppers top finishers were Alex Pajor on still rings, Ryan Webster on vault and Greg Mladucky on pommel horse. All three finished in fifth place on those respective events.
"We didn't have a very good meet," Glenbard West coach Steve Kafka said. "We just weren't real sharp."
Lake Park competed without several of its top gymnasts, including standout freshman Jesus Soto, but still was able to post a 146.640 for sixth place. Mike Hannigan took second on still rings to pace the Lancers.
"We were shorthanded today, but I thought we did really well," Lancers coach Keith Matune said.
Naperville Central's Keith Lage won the all-around with a 54.910, edging Lincoln-Way co-op's Dan Hutton and Glenbrook South's Steve Deutsch.
"I feel that I still need to clean up my events," Lage said. "I need to get rid of the bobbles and hopefully I can do that at state and try to place really high."