The long and short of it: Mundelein wins
Host Mundelein was not at full strength, but the Mustangs were still able to roll to the Independent Conference boys gymnastics championship Wednesday night with their new hair cuts.
Sporting the traditional military-style crew cuts, the Mustangs easily toppled defending champion Stevenson 146.3 to 138.8 for the conference title.
And even though Mundelein only had elite senior all-arounder Scott Marthinsen competing in three of the six events due to a lingering sprained wrist, the Mustangs had more than enough depth to capture the 2011 crown.
After scoring a season-high 132.1 last week, Lake Park’s young squad easily locked up third place with 126.55 points to outdistance much-improved Fenton (120.9 points) in fourth place.
Libertyville probably would have finished higher than fifth place with 118.8 points. But senior all-arounder Craig Breckenridge injured his heel on his parallel bars dismount leading to a rough high bar routine. Breckenridge was held out of floor exercise which was the Wildcats’ last event.
Glenbard South rounded out the field in sixth place (112.6 points).
Marthinsen is expected to return to the all-around competition when Mundelein hosts the fifth and final sectional on the evening of May 7.
“We’re just trying to inch our way to getting me back in all of the events and I thought my high bar routine was pretty good,” said Marthinsen, who also competed on rings and parallel bars. “I can do small tumbling skills and by sectional time even if I’m not 100 percent I think I will compete in all of the events because I wouldn’t want to miss out on state.”
Unlike former Mundelein coach Doug Foerch, who was a judge at the meet Thursday, current Mundelein coach Jesse Piland is not partaking in the crew cut hair style just yet.
“No, he loves his hair way too much,” joked Marthinsen.
Mundelein’s scoring was carried by freshman Colin McCarthy’s second-place 8.50 average in the all-around and junior teammate Tim Beranek’s fourth-place 8.05 average.
“Our two all-arounder both had OK meets, and overall it was good to have Scott back in three events instead of one,” said Piland, who is not completely ruling out the buzz-cut. “If we get top three in the state maybe I’ll consider it — maybe.”
Stevenson’s senior duo of all-around champion Mike Wilner (53 points) with an 8.83 average and third-place finisher Scott Siegel (8.47 average) continue to be a dominant force for the Patriots 10 days before the sectional meet.
“Not looking at scores I think it was our best meet,” said Stevenson coach Mike Farina. “Mike and Scott did exactly what they normally do and they both hit all six events.”
Despite ultimately not competing in the all-around due to the injury, Breckenridge did take first place on pommel horse with an 8.9 along with a four-way tie for first place on vault (9.2).
“Our first four events were our highest scores of the season, but we had to pull Craig off of floor because of the heel bruise,” said Libertyville coach Curt Austin, who will retire at the end of the season. “Hopefully it’s not too major an injury.”
Lake Park was led by its sophomore tandem of Sam Flory (44 points) in fifth place and teammate Chris Avvisati (35.4) in ninth overall.
“It was an above average night for us and we always call the conference meet the introduction to the state series so that was a good start for us,” said Lake Park coach Keith Matune. “Sam (Flory) had a really good meet on floor, pommel horse, and vault, and he had his personal best’s on all three of those events.”
Eugene Boguslavsk (41.7) placed sixth overall for Glenbard South followed by Fenton’s Eric Owusu (39.0) in seventh, and Libertyville’s Evan Policht (36.9) in eighth.
Wilner continued to shine on rings with a first-place 9.4 while winning high bar with an 8.8. McCarthy won floor (9.4), and parallel bars (8.4). Breckenridge (8.9) placed second on rings followed by Mundelein’s Cameron Mueller (8.5) in third.