Either way, a good meet for Le
The past couple of boys gymnastics seasons, the question continues to arise.
Are Glenbard West senior Timmy Le and Glenbard East junior Marc Le related?
"It's either we get brothers or cousins," Timmy Le said. "I'm used to it, but it's really fun. We motivate each other."
And the answer is yes. The cousins share the same last name. Their fathers are brothers.
On Thursday they shared plenty of success in the annual District 87 Invitational at Glenbard North.
Timmy Le won five of the six events and all-around with a personal-best 54.30 as the Hilltoppers defended their title with 154.20 points.
Marc Le won one event and was top five in the other events and all-around in the Rams' second-place 127.90 performance.
Glenbard South was third with 106.30. The host Panthers competed only on the sophomore level.
Even with understandable early-season struggles on pommel horse, still rings and high bar, the Hilltoppers posted one of the state's highest scores in the third week of action.
They opened the season March 3 winning the Vic Lesch Invite with two entries per event. On Saturday they won the three-level Presidents Cup at Glenbard West with the varsity scoring 154.40.
At 2016 state the Hilltoppers scored the same 154.40 to finish second to Niles West's 154.75.
"(Tonight) was a rough meet. It's early in the season," Glenbard West coach Frank Novakowski said.
"We've got to get better. We're going to have to practice like we're in second and play like we're in first. (Timmy Le is) having a great season so far. Part of what we're going to have to do is keep everybody healthy."
The defending individual state champion on parallel bars, Timmy Le won that with a 9.0 as well as floor with a 9.6, vault with a 9.5, still rings with a 9.2 and high bar with an 8.9. He's still keeping out some skills to protect an injured finger.
Taking second outright were the Hilltoppers' Aiden Rudolph on vault with a 9.1 and Frankie Pham on rings with an 8.9 and Matthew Ideler with an 8.8 on high bar. All-arounders Alexander Demeris and Shea Rudolph added multiple top-five finishes.
"(My goals are) just hopefully placing in the all-around and some events," Timmy Le said. "We're just looking forward to winning state. Second wasn't a really good place. It's like, 'What could we have done to win?' "
Marc Le won pommel horse with an 8.2, 0.1 ahead of second-place Timmy, even with a fall and was second on floor with a 9.1 and all-around with a 51.50 that included two times coming off high bar. On Tuesday Le had a personal-best 52.40 all-around in the Rams' dual at Wheaton co-op.
"I can't say enough about what Marc has accomplished since last season," Glenbard East coach Bruce Beiersdorf said. "You can definitely tell he's worked really hard in his craft. He should do really well this year."
Marc Le qualified for 2016 state on floor, still rings and parallel bars but didn't make finals. This year he's hoping to follow in the footsteps of his cousin's junior season.
"I have a really high chance on p-bars and I'm trying to work really hard for it," Marc Le said.
"We like to push each other in the gym when we train together during the summer. I worked really hard on pommel horse because it was my weakness. Each meet we always push each other and call each other out sometimes."
"He's gotten a lot better," Timmy Le said. "He got motivated from last year because he didn't make finals."
Just missing top-five finishes were Glenbard South's Stephen Bean's 8.5 on floor and 8.3 vault and Glenbard East's Vince Milano's 7.4 on still rings.
Bean, a senior, landed his tuck Tsukahara vault. Bean has considered upgrading to a pike Tsuk but has been battling a shoulder injury.
"That's the best vault he's done in two weeks," Glenbard South coach Lee Wood said. "That's what we needed because now he can stick with that one. He's happy with it. When he's happy with it, then I know he's comfortable throwing more of them."
Ideler joined Timmy Le as all-around state qualifiers in 2016 in a senior-heavy lineup.
The Hilltoppers owned the highest score in the state through Wednesday but conference rivals Lyons Township and Hinsdale Central each scored 152.25 March 3.
"(The 154.40) was really exciting for us, but other teams are putting up scores similar so we're still pushing," Ideler said.
"We lost 18 seniors and this year we have six seniors total. For me it's a little bit different because last year we had the seniors to look up to. This year, everyone's looking up to us for an example so we have to set that precedent."