Boys gymnastics: Glenbard West tops Downers Grove North despite Elisha's big night

Downers Grove North senior Lukas Elisha grew up wanting to be like Doug Rybar.

Now that Elisha's back is healthy, he's getting back to being one of the premier gymnasts in the state just like Rybar was almost 10 years ago.

Elisha won the pommel horse, was second on floor, vault and high bar and earned the all-around title with a 54.8 during Friday's Anthony J. Canino Invitational at Hinsdale Central.

"Winning all-around was really important to me because when I was little I used to watch Doug Rybar compete and he was really an inspiration to me winning all those meets so I wanted to be like him when I got older," Elisha said. "Fast forward and here I am."

Rybar was the 2009 all-around state champion and was elected to the Downers Grove North Hall of Fame last year.

As for Elisha, he's ecstatic to be back in the lineup after suffering a vertebral fracture and being sidelined last spring.

"Physical therapy helped a lot and I've come a long way," he said. "I'm glad to be back and really happy with the progress I've made. I've added a lot more skills and difficulty and cleaned up a lot of things."

His Trojans were the runners-up with a 151.9. Defending state champion Glenbard West won with a 155.4.

"We spent a lot of time over spring break working on skills and getting the requirements we were missing," Hilltoppers coach Frank Novakowski said. "We didn't really focus a lot on routines, so you don't expect to go 30-for-30 or 25-for-30 if you're not working a lot of routines. But now they know what they need to get better now, to get real consistent and hopefully we'll be in the mix in the end."

Identical twins Shea Rudolph and Aiden Rudolph have done a lot together, but prior to Friday the Glenbard West teammates had never won an event at the same time in an invitational of this magnitude. Shea won parallel bars and Aiden did the same on high bar.

"I didn't expect the score I got on high bar (9.25), which was my season high and a career high by almost a full point," Aiden Rudolph said. "So I was really happy with my performance."

He was just as happy to watch Shea shine on parallel bars.

"We try to build off of each other's performances and help each other in that way," Aiden Rudolph said. "I really want to see him succeed and I want to do well myself. We're competitive with each other but it doesn't interfere. It's not like a rivalry or that we try to one-up each other. We hope for the best."

Shea Rudolph took third in the all-around with a 51.4 and Alexander Demeris was fifth with a 50.7 to lead Glenbard West. Daniel Eichin added a fifth-place finish on pommel horse, and Andrew Lopez was sixth on vault for the Hilltoppers.

York took fourth with a 145.020 and Willowbrook was fifth with a 142.65.

Adam Sousa placed second in the all-around with a 53.8 to lead the Warriors.

"It definitely went well for me as I did hit 6-for-6 so I was proud of myself for that," Sousa said. "I didn't fall on any of the skills I do have as of now and I'm advancing on my floor routine quite a bit as my ankle is getting better and stronger. I'm going to try to keep adding harder skills to get my start values up so I can try be up there at the end."

Alex Roca picked a great time to have a personal-best 9.6 to win the floor routine in his home gym. The senior helped Hinsdale Central take sixth place with a 128.4.

"It was pretty sweet," Roca said. "I stuck my first pass, which is usually hit or miss and I stuck it and felt really confident off of that. That was a good way to start my routine and a really cool feeling. I had a nice rush of adrenalin for the rest of my routine, so I used it to finish strong."