Glenbrook S. tops improving Stevenson

It was a pretty rocky road for the Stevenson boys gymnastics team Tuesday night at Glenbrook South.

But when you consider that the Patriots lost two elite gymnasts in Mike Wilner and Scott Siegel to graduation, Stevenson has been doing pretty well in the early stages of the 2012 season.

Led by senior all-around champion Kevin Hamilton (8.58 average), the host Titans captured a 136.8 to 128.2 nonconference victory over the Patriots in Glenview.

Glenbrook South junior Austin Zimmer took runner-up honors in the all-around competition with a 7.58 average followed by Stevenson’s Arie Feltman-Frank (7.32 average) in third place.

“They struggled on pommel horse, and they had only two decent routines out of five on that event,” said Stevenson coach Dexter Victoria, who has returned as head coach after a seven-year hiatus. “Arie fell on horse two or three times and floor exercise two or three times so he hit three out of six events. We had three meets in a row so they’re really tired.”

Stevenson sophomore Jacob Guth was the still rings champion with an 8.4 followed closely by senior teammate Dan Forsman (8.2) in second place. Guth wound up taking fourth place overall with a 7.0 average.

Feltman-Frank and Hamilton tied for first place on high bar with 8.8s, while Stevenson junior Kyle Weichselbaum (8.1) placed third.

The Patriots hit 134.8 at Willowbrook.

“We had a bit of an off day,” said Stevenson senior Josh Tarnoff, who competed five events Tuesday night. “I think we need to work on our form, and there are some requirements we haven’t quite filled on each event.”

Hamilton took home first place on pommel horse with a 9.1 followed by Guth (7.8) in second, and Weichselbaum (7.4) in third.

Behind Hamilton’s first-place marks, the Titans swept the top three places on floor exercise and vaulting. Weichselbaum (7.7) and Hamilton tied for third place on still rings.

Zimmer won parallel bars with an 8.6 to edge Feltman-Frank (8.3) and Hamilton in a second-place tie.

“We had 131 points in our last meet so going up by five points was a good improvement for us,” said Glenbrook South coach Brandon Tucker, whose team scored 26.7 points on vault. “I think Kevin (Hamilton) has a lot of room for improvement and he was a (state) medalist on pommel horse last year.”