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Naperville Central tops at Libertyville

Even though it was the first meet of the boys gymnastics season for two of the three teams, there were some solid routines turned in Saturday morning at the Libertyville triple-dual meet.

Naperville Central (2-1) made a small improvement from its season-opening meet to hold off Hersey (1-1) 125.3 to 123.7, despite not having its top all-arounder in the lineup.

The host Wildcats (0-2) scored 111.7 points in their first outing, and that score was already an improvement from their top score last season, so things are definitely headed in a positive direction for Libertyville.

Naperville Central freshman Ryan Durkin rolled to the all-around championship with 47.8 points to easily best Libertyville freshman Adrian Metcalf (39.3 points).

Naperville Central junior all-arounder Dom Delgrosso was out of the lineup due to a knee injury he suffered on floor exercise in the Redhawks’ first meet of the season Wednesday at Lincoln-Way.

According to Naperville Central coach Glen Reimers, Delgrosso’s absence cost his squad as much as seven points in the team competition. But Delgrosso is expected back soon and the Redhawks could ultimately score in the 130-134 range by the end of the season.

“We lose two and a half points without him on high bar and parallel bars alone, but we should be pretty good in the next couple of years because we’re still young,” said Reimers, whose team scored 23.4 points on vault. “(Durkin) had a very good meet. He does throw a Tsuk on vault, but he has some very bad ankles so he didn’t do it today.”

Compared to Wednesday, Naperville Central was much cleaner with its routines after numerous falls at Lincoln-Way.

“In the first meet, the kids were falling left and right,” said Reimers, whose team scored 123 points in their opener. “But today we probably cut our falls in half compared to what we did on Wednesday.”

Durkin posted winning scores of 8.8 on still rings, 8.3 on parallel bars, 7.8 on pommel horse and 7.1 on high bar.

“I haven’t done floor exercise for a while, so I thought I did pretty well on floor exercise,” said Durkin, who hit an 8.5 on that event. “We’re a good team, but since Dom (Delgrosso) is out it will be a little hard to keep up.”

Hersey was without key gymnasts Alex Baratta and Matt Korff due to injuries, but the Huskies did well overall with a 26.3 on floor, a 26.1 on vault and a 21.8 to close out the meet on parallel bars.

Hersey senior David Jackowski took first place on floor with a 9.4, followed by Metcalf (8.8) in second and teammate Matt Swanson (8.6) in third.

Jackowski added a winning score of 9.3 on vault to outdistance runner-up and teammate Jordan Graff (8.7) and Libertyville’s Jack Burke (8.4). Jackowski also took second place on still rings (8.0) and high bar (6.2).

“For the most part, the guys stepped up and did a good job for the first meet, and Matt Swanson did a fantastic job on floor exercise,” said Hersey coach Mason Vernon, whose team struggled on high bar and pommel horse. “David (Jackowski) is on five events for us, and he did a great job on floor exercise and vault.”

Metcalf added a second-place 7.7 on parallel bars, while Naperville Central’s Joe Bajek placed second on pommel horse with a 6.2. Hersey’s Matt Horn placed third on parallel bars with a 7.5, while Metcalf was third on still rings with a 6.5.

“We started off a lot stronger on the first three events, but they got a little tired and fell apart on parallel bars and high bar,” said second-year Libertyville coach Josh Cimo, whose team scored 25.5 points on floor. “The first meet is always tough. It was a good eye-opener to see where we stand and what we need to work on.”

  Libertyville’s Jack Burke competes on the floor exercise during Saturday’s boys gymnastics meet featuring Hersey and Naperville Central at Libertyville. JOE LEWNARD/jlewnard@dailyherald.com
  Hersey’s David Jackowski dismounts from the still rings Saturday at Libertyville. JOE LEWNARD/ jlewnard@dailyherald.com
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