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One Samuta enough for Glenbard West to win meet

Glenbard West's Eric Samuta is used to competing alongside his older brother, Adam.

Unfortunately, Adam missed out on Thursday's District 87 meet at Glenbard South while attending the Hilltoppers' wrestling banquet.

Not having his brother at his side didn't faze the sophomore. He won the all-around title to help the Hilltoppers breeze to victory.

Glenbard West posted a 129.8 while the remaining three schools battled for the runner-up slot, which went to the host Raiders with a 109.8. Glenbard North followed with a 108.6 and Glenbard East had a 106.9.

"Our goal was to kind of keep them safe," Hilltoppers coach Frank Novakowski said. "We have a very young team so we're spending a lot of time in the gym working on skills and hopefully we can get a lot of work done to make a push toward the top."

Samuta won floor with an 8.6, tied Glenbard East's Mike McGowan for top honors on vault with an 8.7 and tied Glenbard South's Eric McGovern for the top spot on high bar with a 6.7. He edged teammate Matt Ideler 43.7 to 43.3 for the all-around title, but he wasn't entirely pleased with his performance.

"I made some mistakes that I shouldn't have made," Samuta said. "But some of it I was pleased with. I was very happy with vault."

He's also happy with where the Hilltoppers stand after just three meets.

"I think we're pacing ourselves better than we did at this time last year," he said. "This team is a lot closer than last year too, and I like the heart we have. Everyone has a passion for the sport, which is cool to see from my teammates."

Also for the Hilltoppers, Ideler tied for first on parallel bars with Glenbard South's Eric McGovern with a 7, while teammate Spencer Green won still rings with a 7.3.

It was a big night for McGovern, especially on parallel bars and high bar. He shared top spot, while placing third in the all-around with a 40.9.

"I love competing at home and on our own equipment. You don't have to warm up because you've done it a thousand times," McGovern said. "It was a fun meet. All the Glenbard kids here. I don't even know their names, but they're the nicest people on the planet."

McGovern is used to doing well on parallel bars. His extraordinary success on high bar caught him a bit off guard, though.

"High bar isn't one of my strongest events, so it was well above average," he said. "So that was a great highlight for me."

Glenbard North's Asim Zaidi won pommel horse with a 7.2.

Glenbard East was particularly strong on vault. In addition to McGowan tying for first place, Mathias Bouillet was third with an 8.3. On floor Kobe Mejia was third with a 7.9.

"With the guys we had, we did OK," Rams coach Joon Yun said. "We definitely have a lot of improvements to make, but this was a fun meet. You can get an idea of what the team looks like and we did well on floor and vault, but we need a lot of improvement on high bar and parallel bars."

  Josh Keating of Glenbard South competes on Pommel Horse during the District 87 boys gymnastics meet at Glenbard South. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com
  Matt Le of Glenbard East competes on Rings during the District 87 boys gymnastics meet at Glenbard South. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com
  Luke Meister of Glenbard North competes on Rings during the District 87 boys gymnastics meet at Glenbard South. Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com
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