Powerful Stevenson 'winning in all aspects'

Stevenson coach Mike Farina said the goal for his boys gymnastics team is always for the athletes to hit their routines.

"It's not necessarily about winning to me," he said. "Winning is nice. But I emphasize hitting the routines and getting better. If you do that, you're going to be winning in all aspects."

The Patriots (156.25) sure hit a lot of routines at the Conant sectional Saturday night, leaving Hoffman Estates with their first sectional crown since 2004 - the year they won a third consecutive state title.

Stevenson took the top three spots in the all-around with senior Lukasz Adamczyk (55.25), junior Alex Hoersten (54.50) and junior Mike Wilner (52.75.).

"This was a good meet," Adamczyk said. "We put in a lot of effort and worked hard for this and these are the results we got."

The results showed the Patriots' top three all-arounders combined to win every individual event except high bar, which went to Conant's Joey Mauk (9.05).

The Conant freshman (fourth in the all-round with a 52.65) helped the Cougars to a second-place finish and 156.25 score - which earned an at-large berth in the state meet Friday at Lincoln-Way East.

"My jam was perfect," the talented rookie said. "In warm-ups, it was off and on, but I really hit the routine. It wasn't our best meet. We're still looking for that at state."

"We're hoping this was our valley," said Conant coach Paul Kim. "And that we're hitting the hills at state."

Third-place finisher Fremd (147.05) just missed the 148.7 state cutoff for an at-large berth.

Rounding out the field were Palatine (143.40), Buffalo Grove (137.45), Mundelein (133.40), Libertyville (126.40), Hoffman Estates (115.00) and Barrington (112.15).

Stevenson and Conant will join Lincoln-Way East co-op, Highland Park-Deerfield co-op, Glenbard North, Wheaton-Warrenville co-op, Hinsdale Central and Downers Grove North for the state finals.

"Obviously, we wanted to win in our home gym," said Conant senior all-arounder Anthony Crivolio, who was fifth with a 52.45. "But we're happy we qualified for state. I kept telling our guys if we're not perfect at sectionals, there's one more meet we've got to hit, and that's state."

Adamczyk was first on the pommel horse (9.65) and parallel bars (9.6), while Hoersten won the vault (9.45).

Hoersten and Adamczyk tied for first on the floor (9.55), followed by Stevenson's Scott Siegel and Barrington's Kellen O'Connor (9.3), and Libertyville's Craig Breckenridge (9.2) and Mundelein's Scott Marthinsen (9.2).

"I had a few rough spots but overall I was pretty pleased," said Hoersten, appearing in the all-around competition for only the second time of his career.

Wilner won the still rings with a score of 9.1 to edge Marthinsen (9.05).

"I want to work more on my high bar and pommel this week," Breckenridge said. "We're a young team. We knew we weren't going to win. Our theme was to have fun here. That's all we wanted to do."

Fremd coach Tim Hamman watched senior Brandon Trostrud notch a 9.4 on parallel bars for third place and 50.40 in all-around.

"Getting 50 in the all-around was one of the things I was hoping to see Brandon do this year," Hamman said. "I thought the kids had a great meet. We had a couple of bobbles here and there. But I couldn't ask for much more. It was a good finish to the season."

Palatine senior Mike Abram qualified in all seven events after going out first in three events a year ago.

"Mike had a solid meet," said Pirates coach Scott Hagel. "After last year, I'm really proud of him being able to qualify in every event.

"Damian (Przystal) was not feeling that well so it was good to see him qualify in four events and Steve Repking's 8.9 on vault was just enough to qualify by 0.5 so that was nice to see."

Buffalo Grove's Erik Balko scored a 9.35 to finish in a three-way tie for third, while Conant junior Steve Rink scored a 50.25 for 10th place in the all-around.

At Hinsdale Central: Host Hinsdale Central ran away with the sectional title, scoring 149.85 to outdistance Glenbrook South (137.8) and Leyden (131.6).

Leyden's Allen Paczynski won the still rings with a mark of 9.05. Sam Patterson of New Trier was the all-around winner with 51.25.