Boys gymnastics: Stevenson falls short with limited lineup
With a senior-dominated lineup, the Stevenson boys gymnastics team was hoping to soar to a season-high score Tuesday on senior night against visiting Glenbrook South.
But with three seniors suffering warm-up injuries before the meet even officially started, the Patriots were unable to reach those lofty goals as they dropped a 140.9 to 126.3 loss to the powerful Titans squad in this nonconference battle.
To make matters even worse, elite Stevenson senior all-arounder Matt Krames hyperextended his knee on vault and he was at less than full strength for the final third of the meet.
Both Glenbrook South (5-0) and the Patriots (0-3) put together outstanding performances on floor exercise to open the meet as the Titans scored 26.4 points to 25.5 points for Stevenson.
Krames was unable to match his career-high 52 points that he scored two weeks ago at Mundelein as Glenbrook South's Lucas Pauker edged Krames 50.7 (8.45 average) to 50.4 for the all-around championship.
Besides starting off the meet strong on floor exercise, Stevenson also added solid team performances on vault (23.1), and parallel bars (22.5).
The Patriots currently have a season-high mark of 129.8, but they are hoping to surpass the 130-point plateau and beyond starting with the Bob Bohl Invitational Friday night at Mundelein.
"I'm happy that we went 126 given our injuries, and they were able to push through as a team tonight and do well regardless," said Stevenson coach Joe Rogalski, whose team saw Glenbrook South sweep the top four places on pommel horse. "Floor exercise is one of our stronger events and it showed tonight, so I was happy with that."
Krames displayed why he is the defending state champion on floor with a first-place 9.4, and he added winning scores of 8.9 on parallel bars, 8.6 on high bar, and 8.3 on still rings. But following the meet, Krames admitted that he was not at his best from start to finish.
"I wasn't really feeling it today, and I had a few events where I crashed and burned a little bit," said Krames, who also tied for third in the state on parallel bars last spring. "There's going to be a lot of good guys there (at Bohl Invite) so I'm really going to have to bring it and I can finish in the top three."
Pauker tied Krames' meet-high mark with a 9.4 on vault, and he also took home first place on pommel horse with an 8.3.
"Our guys are putting their routines together now that for the most part they're going to have at the end of the year," said Glenbrook South coach Brandon Tucker, whose team has a season-high score of 142.1 so far. "The first meet after spring break is always a little rough, and now we're all about working out the kinks and not adding any new tricks."
Stevenson junior Danny Less added a fifth-place 8.2 on floor while senior teammate Kent Lee placed fourth on parallel bars with a 6.9. The Patriots also got a fifth-place (6.7) from senior Adi Crook on parallel bars despite some pretty tough judging.
"We couldn't hit our season-high tonight with so many seniors out and Matt (Krames) not at full strength so it's kind of a disappointing senior night, but there's not much you can do about it," added Rogalski, whose team was assigned to the Palatine IHSA sectional meet. "In 10 years of coaching this has to be my favorite group of seniors, there's great camaraderie, and it was just bad luck on senior night. But there's still over a month left in the season so I think we can still have a strong finish."