Injury proves costly to St. Charles at state

A few weeks ago Bryan Beth overcame an ankle injury that looked like it might be standing in the way of the St. Charles boys gymnastics team advancing to the IHSA state finals at Barrington.

During Friday's IHSA boys team championships, the North Stars could not rise above another injury.

Sophomore Sean Johnston injured his back during a pre-meet warmup session and was unable to compete. That left the North Stars with only Beth and Ryan Johnston.

"We were getting ready to march in and Sean's mom told me that the doctor said he was fine," North Stars coach Tom Wirth said. "They (Beth and Ryan Johnston) were really down about Sean's injury, so I told them he was fine and we really had hope again. I figured even if he can't compete at least they have a better mindset."

Wirth's strategy worked extremely well as Beth and Ryan Johnston posted solid routines in floor exercise and pommel horse just to get things started.

"It turns out that Sean missed the first two events and at that point he really couldn't help us as a team," Wirth said. "So we kept him out and were happy that the other two had gotten in a good mode."

The North Stars finished in eighth place with a 95.350. With only two gymnasts competing they didn't have a third score to count to its team score. Still, it doesn't take a CPA to realize that with Sean Johnston scoring his usual 53-54 in the all-around that the North Stars likely would've finished in third place and brought a trophy home.

"I think we would've been third," Beth said. "You give Sean his usual score and that would've put us in the 157-158 range. I guess there is some consolation if we take that perspective."

Sean Johnston expects to return to Barrington this morning alongside his two teammates for the individual championships.

"I'm competing (today)," he said. "I definitely plan on being back here."

York, which defeated the North Stars 154.7-151.3 on March 5, won the state championship, beating runner-up Lincoln-Way East 163.7-161.6. It was the Dukes' first state championship since 1983.