Szot plays follow the leader

Ethan Sansone dominated the DuPage Valley Conference in recent seasons for Wheaton co-op, winning the boys gymnastics all-around championship three straight years.

Wheaton co-op senior Ben Szot watched Sansone win it last year and then went out and won it himself during Friday's DVC meet at Naperville Central.

"It feels really great to win the DVC because it's a really strong conference," Szot said. "I'm really glad it worked out. I put in a lot of effort and whoever won it would've deserved it because a lot of guys in the DVC have put in a lot of time and effort."

Szot finished with a 51.65 while teammate Lucas Cooperman was a few points behind him with a 48.65. Naperville North's Brandon Louise was a distant third with a 45.7 while Naperville Central's Karl Jungquist was fourth with a 45.3.

"Ben definitely earned it today," Cooperman said. "He really deserves to be the DVC champ."

Wheaton co-op coach Greg Gebhardt has seen the hard work Szot puts in daily in the gym, so he was ecstatic to see it pay off.

"He's made a lot of improvement and he does everything you want him to do," Gebhardt said. "He's a great leader and obviously he and Lucas are our two all-arounders who we build the team around."

Wheaton co-op breezed to the team title with a 147.6 while Naperville Central edged Naperville North, 137.05 to 136.15 to take second place. Glenbard North was fourth with a 117.15 and followed by Lake Park's 116.15.

"It's amazing what these guys have accomplished," Gebhardt said. "They're working really hard and we always hope to do well in our last three meets - conference, sectional and state - and it's a tribute to our seniors just coming together."

Austin Tate contributed scores on four events for the winners, included an 8.15 on parallel bars, while Adam DeCrane had an 8.75 on vault and Cory Drummond scored a 9.05 on floor.

Cooperman and Szot split the six individual event titles. Cooperman won floor with a 9.45, vault with a 9.15 and high bar with an 8, while Szot took top honors on still rings with an 8.4, parallel bars with an 8.9 and pommel horse with a 9.

"I was really happy with vault and floor," Cooperman said. "I added a new dismount on high bar too. We still have some grinding to do and skills to add though to get ready for sectionals."

Junior Ryan Durkin paced the Redhawks even though an injury prohibited him from competing on floor and vault. Durkin finished in second place on three events, including pommel horse with an 8.7.

His teammates Karl Junguist and Joe Bajek also had strong performances. Jungquist was fourth on parallel bars with an 8.25 and Bajek was fourth on pommel horse with a 7.85.

"We still have lot of work to do because if we want to get to state we need to get into the 140s," Redhawks coach Glen Reimers said. "We had some errors here and there. We can't be perfect everyday, but I was pleased we took second. We just need to improve from there."

Louise led Naperville North, taking second on vault with a 9.1 and fourth on high bar with a 6.95. Yudai Okabe, Allen Peng and Miko Matz also had a pair of top-five finishes, including Okabe's third-place effort on still rings with an 8.1.

"We had hoped to be in second place," Huskies coach Brad Foerch said. "I actually thought we had a real nice meet, but we made some mistakes which were more technical, and it cost us scoring-wise, but the effort was there and the kids worked really hard."

Glenbard North's Asim Zaidi was third on pommel horse with an 8.1 and Joshua Garrison was fourth on still rings with a 7.25.

Lake Park's Dakota Joens and Luke Badger scored a 41 and 39.15, respectively, in the all-around for the Lancers.