Wheaton's Krupke win is worthy of a feast
A couple hot dogs with some fries and a chocolate shake were on David MacDonald's mind as he departed Lake Park in Roselle on Friday night.
The Wheaton co-op senior was excited about a post-meet meal with his team at Portillo's, and he had plenty of reasons to be thrilled about more than just the menu. He was as dominant as one could be during the Krupke Invite, winning all six events and, obviously, the all-around title with a 55.6.
MacDonald's effort helped Wheaton co-op roll to a huge victory with 160.05 points, as the team surpassed the 160 mark for the second time this season.
Mundelein was a distant runner-up with 143.75 points, while Downers Grove North was third with a 135.25.
"A very consistent effort from the guys," Wheaton co-op coach Greg Gebhardt said. "David (MacDonald), Ethan (Sansone) and Ben (Szot) were all 6 for 6 and then we had some good individual efforts.
Connor Ritchie contributed a 9.1 on vault and 8.65 still rings, Ben Marston added an 8.7 on parallel bars and Austin Peabody scored a 7.9 on high bar.
"The huge thing with the scoring changes is getting our third score," Gebhardt said. "Austin did a great job on high bar tonight, as did Connor Ritchie on rings. Those are nice scores to get and to see those guys move up like that is going to be a huge difference."
MacDonald shows no signs of slowing down. The kid recorded a jaw-dropping 9.8 on vault while his 9.6 on parallel bars was nearly a point higher than teammate Ethan Sansone's 8.75 while drawing a huge response from the crowd.
"I hear they like some of those newer tricks I'm doing (on parallel bars)," MacDonald said. "It's pretty cool to get the recognition, but it gets me nervous. It's still a lot of fun, but it's more stressful now."
Sansone finished with a 53.7 in the all-around, but his effort was seemingly buried by MacDonald's dominance. Glenbard South's Eugene Boguslavsky was third with a 50.425.
Runner-up Mundelein is expected to be one of the teams that could challenge Wheaton for the state title, but the Mustangs, who were short-handed, still were more than 16 points off the pace of Wheaton co-op. Although it's not even April yet, it appears that a three-peat is a strong possibility for Wheaton.
Mundelein's top all-arounder Colin McCarthy only competed in a few events. Cam Mueller finished fourth in the all-around with a 49.15.
"Colin's got a big state meet for club tomorrow so he didn't want to go all out," Mundelein coach Jesse Piland. "I thought for what we had out there from the guys, we did pretty good."
Naperville North was fourth with a 134.95, while Glenbard South was fifth with a 132.275 and Conant was sixth with a 129.45.
Willowbrook was eighth with a 126.75, while the host Lancers were ninth with a 119.8.
"I'm pretty sure that was a season high for us, so I'm happy with that," Lake Park coach Anthony Avella said. "We did some good things, but there's still a lot of things we need to work on."
Wheaton co-op and Mundelein dominated the leaderboard, securing the top three spots in all six events, except for still rings, where Downers Grove North's Tom Brethaver was second with a 9.2.