Boys gymnastics: Crowd-pleasing Schaumburg wins first sectional title

Performing before a raucous home crowd, Schaumburg delivered the goods Friday night.

The boys gymnastics team won the program's first-ever sectional with a score of 153.45. That earned the Saxons a trip to next Friday's state team championship at Hoffman Estates.

"It is pretty awesome," said Schaumburg coach Erik Bostrom, whose team will making its second consecutive appearance at the finals and the fourth in school history. "We had the butterflies going. But the guys did a great job. It was really special having it at home and getting a good crowd here and the energy tonight."

That energy translated into a solid performance by the Saxons' all-arounders.

Brandon Nyborg, who was competing in his first all-around in three weeks while healing from injury, won the sectional title with a 51.80.

"I crunched my ankle a couple weeks ago," said Nyborg, a sophomore. "I am still not OK, but I am going to try to push through. I am happy with how it went."

Nyborg had just enough to edge teammate Oscar Kulesza, who was second with 51.75.

"It was a good meet," said Kulesza, who is a freshman. "If I couldn't win the all-around, I am glad it was one of my teammates. I struggled a bit in my first two events, but I got back into it and did well."

Also doing well was the Saxons' third all-arounder, Nathan Frank. Also a freshman, Frank was just competing in his third-ever all-around and finished with a solid fourth-place finish (48.95).

"I feel pretty good about that," Frank said. "It has been pretty hard getting here after not competing for a couple of years. But I am getting all my skills back."

Nyborg was the sectional champ on the the floor with a 9.35 while Kulesza won the pommel horse (7.70), the parallel bars (9.50) and the high bar (8.80). Schaumburg also got solid performances from Trent Ramirez, Jacob Raeside, Wei Ping Lam, Trever Baynes, James Minard and Karan Greer.

"We had some new skills and it was nice to see the guys succeed with them in," Bostrom said. "It really starts to beef up our routines."

Bostrom said he couldn't be happier with his young contributors.

"They came into this season and they knew what they wanted," Bostrom said. "They have been stepping right in and a part of the team from day one."

Libertyville finished a surprising second with a 149.00. Libertyville coach Josh Cimo was ecstatic with his team's performance.

"We had a great meet," said Cimo, whose team competed in front of Cimo's parents, Jim and Rodie, who flew in from Arizona to watch their son and his team. "We had a couple falls in the beginning and we just edged ourselves out of it. Under this pressure and this type of judging, with two eyes on you instead of one, it was pretty intense. But our guys did a great job."

The Wildcats were led by Max Faber, who earned a trip to the state individual finals in the all-around with his third-place finish (51.45). Faber also won the vault with an 8.85 and tied on the pommel horse with a 7.70.

"This was my best meet by a lot," said Faber, who is a junior and is competing in high school gymnastics for the first time after staying in club the first two years. "I loved the pressure. I always do better with the pressure on. Knowing that this meet counts really pushed me."

Also doing well for Libertyville was Tyler Kukla, who finished fourth on the parallel bars. Robert Cartwright, Patrick Tanski and Matthew Neuberger also came up large for the Wildcats.

York finished third at 148.55. The Dukes struggled at key times and fell a bit short.

"Not what we planned," York coach Nick Criel said. "We had planned on hitting our vaults and that's where we started to go downhill. We expected to come in here over 150, but today wasn't our meet. But we still got every one of our varsity guys through to the finals."

York's John Gill won the rings with a 9.40 and also qualified on high bar. Kelvin Stevens Jr. was second on rings with a 9.30 and also qualified on the parallel bars. Jake Anderson advanced on the vault, Dominic Milazzo made vault and floor while Charlie Cripe made it through on the high bar and floor.

Hoffman Estates' Alex Collier qualified on the vault while teammate RJ Webster made it though on the pommel horse. Conant's Jared Prill also qualified on the pommel horse.

Addison Trail's Matt Wojdak was an automatic qualifier on floor exercise.