Boys gymnastics: Willowbrook defeats Addison Trail

Senior Adam Sousa is back, he's bigger and stronger than when last competed for Willowbrook, and he believes he will be better than ever before.

The senior took a respite from the team last year after helping the Warriors to a fourth-place finish in the state in 2015, the team's first state appearance in 24 years.

He also placed fourth in the state in the all-around in both 2015 and 2016 and qualified for the event finals in 10-of-12 events, which included a second-place medal on high bar, third on vault and fifth on pommel horse.

Sousa, who expects to compete at UIC next year, showed why he was missed last spring during Wednesday's West Suburban Conference meet, winning all six events as Willowbrook cruised past Addison Trail, 142.6 to 118.9.

"I missed the energy from the whole team supporting each other and all that sort of stuff," he said. "That really helps me get through my routines and not being so individual but being part of a team as a unit."

His decision to return didn't come overnight.

"It took me a little bit to decide," he said. "I didn't want to rush it. I decided to come back and help my team out. I want to go to state and help out as much as I can, be a role model to the young guys and help coach and stuff like that."

Sousa's 53.8 in the all-around surpassed his all-around state scores during his underclassmen years.

"I'm hoping to see some good competition, which I already have and I respect everyone who competes because they bring the best out of me," he said. "I've gotten better on rings with more strength, vault will be better once my ankle heals up, I'll be showing some nice stuff on the floor at the end and high bar I got a lot stronger on that."

Daniel Lopez-Egan also had a productive performance for the Warriors, taking second on still rings, tying teammate Matthew Smith for second on high bar and earning third place on vault and parallel bars.

"Things went pretty well and the only thing I didn't feel really good on was vault and I'll work on that more during the season," Lopez-Egan said. "I had a lot of first-time things for me, like p-bars going through that routine, the same with rings where I added my cross tonight, and hopefully I can get my double-back next meet, and high bar went as perfectly as planned because I stuck my dismount, so overall a good night."

He hopes it only gets better.

"As the season goes on we're going to get so much stronger," he said. "There's a lot of potential for us, even us seniors who are almost maxing out, because we have some big skills we can still put in. I'm happy how this meet turned out and how this season is going to turn out."

Isaiah Lewis added key scores on vault and floor, Brendan Bailey did the same on pommel horse and high bar. Cooper Ross placed second on pommel horse and Sean Luner was third on still rings for the winners.

Addison Trail opened the season scoring in the low 110s but in meet No. 3 was in the high 110s.

"We're a very young team," Blazers coach Mike Galfi said. "And the best thing about this team is they're all dedicated and they all work really hard. When we had a week-and-a-half off all those kids made big gains."

Galfi's squad consists of kids who are as experienced only as long as they've been in high school, save for freshman Matt Wojdak, who took second on floor.

"I did two years of tumbling and then did a year of club gymnastics before I quit, came to high school and started again," Wojdak said. "I had really been missing gymnastics so it's nice to come back."

Wojdak also competed on vault and tied Pablo Duran for the team's second-highest score of 6.8 behind Caleb Michaliska's 7.2.

While Willowbrook produced four of the top five scores on still rings, Michaliska and Eric Estrada were solid to lead the Blazers.

"Caleb's a second-year gymnast who has come along real well," Galfi said. "Eric is a third-year guy, a captain and he's the most dedicated one. He's in the gym all the time helping run everything."

Michaliska was the only other all-arounder to compete with Sousa, finishing with a 38.5.