Powerful Palatine
It was a good day to be a Pirate on Saturday.
The Palatine boys gymnastics team easily earned its second straight trip to the state finals, scoring a 158.2 to win its own sectional meet and qualifying a plethora of gymnasts on the individual side.
"That was really nice to see everybody up on the podium," said Pirates senior Matt Eckardt, who took first in all-around (53.45) and automatically qualified on five events with a shot at an at-large berth on parallel bars. "I'm hoping we'll be able to surprise some people. I'm not sure if we'll be able to come away with the title again, but we're going to do better than people will expect us to do."
The Pirates featured 18 automatic individual qualifiers, along with five more at-large candidates.
Eckardt took first on floor and pommel horse, while junior Luke Schuster won parallel bars and senior Danny Weiss earned the high bar title.
"I remember last year not even dreaming that I would ever get on the podium," Weiss said. "To take first is really weird. Even this morning, I was thinking along the lines of the at-large scores and what I would have to get to get an at-large score."
The Pirates won the team title by 23.65 points over runner-up Highland Park co-op.
Fremd was third with 132.1 and got a gutsy performance from junior Dante Digangi, who badly sprained his ankle on Thursday. Despite not warming up before the meet to help manage the pain, Digangi posted a 9.2 on floor and stayed upright despite several hard landings.
"It just hurt so bad. There was so much pressure on it," he said. "I just knew that if I just had a clean routine, there was a chance I could make state. That's always been my dream."
Digangi's sixth-place performance should be enough to earn him an at-large bid.
Vikings sophomore Brandon Trostrud automatically qualified on p-bars with a fourth-place finish and could advance on high bar.
Fremd senior Keith English, who took first on vault with a 9.6, will look to improve upon on his sixth-place performance at state last year. English could also qualify on p-bars and floor.
Buffalo Grove overcame several hard falls to finish sixth with 128.15. Senior Jason Siebert landed on his head after an awkward vault, but he came back to earn an automatic bid with a fifth-place finish on high bar.
"My steps were off," said Siebert, who is also in the running for at-large spots on floor and rings. "I should have gone off to the side before because I knew my steps were off as soon as I went for the vault. But I'm definitely happy it didn't continue to go down hill after that."
Bison senior Steve Dugan avoided any spills and qualified on floor and vault, with a very good shot at an at-large spot on p-bars.
Barrington was seventh with 126.65 and qualified sophomore Kellen O'Connor on floor and junior Roelle Eugenio on p-bars, with junior Gerald Fawcett in the running for an at-large spot on vault.
"I'm just happy I got in the top five," O'Connor said. "I'm in and now that all gets thrown out. So it's all about the prelims. If I get top 10, I'll be happy."