Boys gymnastics: York surprises itself with score
Senior John Gill and his York boys gymnastics teammates already felt great about entering Wednesday's home dual meet with their full lineup for the first time this season.
Then the Dukes scored 154.00 - a season best by 7.35 points.
"The score really did surprise us. We were all ecstatic," Gill said. "It was just amazing. Everyone was so happy, especially (coach Nick Criel), wanting a 150 for so long. It was a great joy to see his face."
On Saturday there also were many happy faces after the Dukes' 42nd annual Ken Scorza Invitational in Elmhurst. They continued their momentum toward contending for a state team berth with a second-place 150.625.
York only was beaten by the 157.35 from Deerfield, the state's top-rated team, and finished ahead of higher-rated Mundelein's 148.85. In its invite debut Willowbrook was fourth with 141.45 and Glenbard East seventh with 129.05.
Gill's 9.5 tied for first on still rings with Deerfield's Clayton Petrasek. Willowbrook senior Adam Sousa won vault with a 9.15 for his handspring pike and his personal-high 9.4 on parallel bars shared first with Deerfield's Matthew Kroscher. York senior Kelvin Stevens Jr. and sophomores Charlie Cripe and Dom Milazzo and Glenbard East senior Marc Le also had top-five finishes.
"It just goes to show if we all work hard and come together, we can make things happen," said Stevens, who returned Wednesday from a shoulder injury. "A 154 is what we can do when we're really hitting. Now if it's a really good day when everyone's on their game, maybe we'll even beat 154."
York last qualified for the eight-team state meet in 2009, when Criel was a junior for the third-place trophy team. The Dukes won the 2008 state championship and were second in 2007.
The Dukes return basically the same lineup from 2017 that had the 10th-best sectional score, 1.75 from the 151.25 state cut.
"Our goal is to make sure we're in that 150-to-152 range so then we can go into sectional and we don't have to hope for that score (to qualify)," Criel said. "We were definitely surprised by the 154. Today was definitely more realistic because there were all of these state judges. To get a 150 here is telling us we really can do it - and we didn't even hit."
Gill and Stevens, third on rings at 9.4, were 2017 state finalists on the event. Gill became York's first gymnast to twice earn first on rings at the Scorza Invite after winning in 2017 with 9.35.
"I was not aware of that. I wasn't expecting that at all," Gill said. "It's really, really fun and amazing to perform on rings, especially the work put in to get first."
Cripe was second on high bar with 9.2, Stevens third on parallel bars with 9.0 and Milazzo's 9.1 shared fifth on floor exercise.
Sousa and Stevens will be gymnastics teammates at Illinois-Chicago. Willowbrook coach and 2010 York graduate Caleb Strejc was a gymnastics teammate of Criel, who helped the Warriors to join the invite.
"Last year we were trying to get in but it was just too late," Strejc said. "A lot of these guys know each other, the York and Willowbrook guys. It's fun to be at another meet together."
Sousa was a close second in all-around to Kroscher 53.80 to 53.45 and also third on high bar with 9.0, fourth on rings with 9.1 and fifth on floor.
On Senior Night Thursday, Sousa had a lifetime-best 55.20 all-around.
"Seeing my name on the banner and walking out with my parents, who have pushed and supported me through the whole sport, that definitely pumped me up," Sousa said. "I wanted to do well and show the other athletes from my school that showed up to watch what I do and how good our team can be."
Parallel bars was the highlight Saturday. Strejc won 2010 state titles in all-around and parallel bars, which he won twice at the Scorza Invite.
"We fight about that all of the time because my favorite events are vault and high bar and his was always pbars," Sousa said. "I've had plenty of coaches that have helped me through pbars and everything, but he's probably the best."
Glenbard East scored a third-place 134.40 at Friday's Lake Park Invite, which was won by Mundelein's 145.75. Le won rings with 9.5 and had five other top-three finishes but his rings dismount injured his lower back.
On Saturday, Le was fourth with his 8.85 layout Tsukahara vault and had two other top-10 finishes.
"(Friday's) performance was way better than today. I was feeling quite exhausted in the shoulders," Le said. "I have a lot of catching up to do, that's for sure. I've really got to try and hit 6 for 6 since I haven't done that this season, but I'm getting there."