Wheaton co-op defeats shorthanded Naperville Central

While the bad breaks continued for Naperville Central, Wheaton co-op broke its season-high score.

The co-op cruised in Wednesday's DuPage Valley Conference meet in Naperville, posting a 146 while a severely depleted Redhawks squad only totaled 78.9 points.

Lucas Cooperman led the winners, winning all but pommel horse and scoring a 51.5 in the all-around.

"It's going to be a busy and fun week," Cooperman said, referring to the team also being in action Thursday night at the Ralph Krupke Invitational at Lake Park and on Saturday at the Vic Avigliano Invitational at Rolling Meadows. "We're just continuing to work hard. Tonight some things went really well, but we also made some mistakes that we need to clean up."

Cooperman finished his evening on parallel bars, sticking his dismount to earn a 9. He also had a 9.2 on floor as he posted the lone two scores that were above the 9-mark.

Austin Tate took top honors on pommel horse with an 8.1 while also taking second in the all-around with a 47.3.

"We're about right at where we need to be for this time," Tate said. "We're doing what we need to do in order to get to where we want to by the end of the year."

Aiden Moran placed third in the all-around with a 45.6; the three co-op gymnasts were the lone all-arounders.

Naperville Central all-arounder Charles Nawara was sidelined after getting hurt on the Redhawks' first event - floor exercise.

The Redhawks were already without their top gymnast, Ryan Durkin, who tore his labrum last week at Glenbard North and might be out for the season. They also were without the services of two other varsity gymnasts.

Sam Piazza was the team's lone competitor on still rings and they only had two gymnasts on pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar.

"We're going to have to get some other guys working those events," Redhawks coach Glen Reimers said. "It was really unfortunate for Charles to get hurt like that. It looks like he hyperextended both knees."

It's too soon to tell when Nawara may return. As for Durkin, the outlook appears bleak for the senior, who had top-five finishes at state on three events last May.

"He might be done for the season, but we're not sure," Reimers said. "He's going to see a specialist so we don't know if it's something they'll rehab or more. Maybe he comes back and just does pommel horse? We'll have to see."

Tanj Jacobs was the only top placer for the Redhawks, taking third on vault with an 8.2. He also had a 7.7 on floor. The team's other high scores included Kevin Sedlacek's 7.7 on vault and Tony Biondo's 7.6 on vault.

For the co-op, Joey DiRienzo contributed a 7.7 on still rings, Andy Mathieu earned a 7.6 on pommel horse and Chase McClearn added a 7.2 on high bar.

"This week of competition, we need to do what we've practiced and worry about hitting sets," co-op coach Greg Gebhardt said. "We've had a lot of meets in the first few weeks and they're starting to get in shape now. Soon it'll be time to start working skills because then it's just three weeks until conference."