No stopping Wheaton co-op
Willowbrook is the rising newcomer on the scene this spring in boys gymnastics, but even the upstart Warriors couldn't upend host Wheaton co-op's annual dominance in its David Donaldson Invite.
The Blazers were impressive with 146 points, but Wheaton co-op still was superior, winning with a 149.15.
"It's our big home invite so it's nice to kind of bring that back home," Wheaton co-op's Lucas Cooperman said, "You make a statement that this is our gym and this is what we do, so it's always nice to win."
Cooperman finished second in the all-around with a 51.6, while winning vault with a 9.2 and floor with a 9.55.
"I threw a new vault, a layout tsuk, which is different then my pike tsuk that I've been doing recently," he said. "It went well, but I still have a ways to go. These were my best scores and was my best meet of the year, but I still need to improve."
Wheaton co-op's Ben Szot won parallel bars with a 9.05 and took third in the all-around with a 51.35.
Cory Drummond contributed key scores on vault and floor exercise. Austin Tate, whose efforts sometimes are often overshadowed by the higher scores of Szot and Cooperman, added to the team's total with scores on four events.
"I'm confident and just doing what I can right now," Tate said. "I think we performed well. Of course, we made some mistakes, but I think we did a lot of things well, which is promising for the end of the season."
Willowbrook was paced by freshman Adam Sousa, who won the all-around with a 51.7.
"This is extremely exciting for me. I'm happy that I won with a lot of good gymnasts here," Sousa said. "I still have some things that I could clean up, the whole team does. We're confident, though, that we can clean them up. We're in the high 140s now and hope to get to 150 heading into sectionals and state."
Keawe Winstead added a 7.95 on still rings and 8.4 on pommel horse for the Blazers, while Bret Golz earned an 8.6 on parallel bars and 7.85 on high bar.
Glenbard West earned third place with 139.95. Eric Samuta paced the Hilltoppers, taking fifth in the all-around with a 47.9.
Naperville Central was fourth with a 134.4, despite not being anywhere close to being fully healthy.
The Redhawks top gymnast, Ryan Durkin, was limited to only three events because of injuries, but he won still rings with an 8.2, as well as pommel horse with a 9.55. His effort on pommel horse netted a personal high score.
"I was really happy with pommel horse, since it was my best," he said. "Still rings wasn't my best, I know I could've done better, but p-bars was decent too."