Johnston battles back to take fifth on floor
Sean Johnston's back didn't prohibit him from coming back and competing for St. Charles co-op in Saturday's IHSA boys gymnastics individual championships at Barrington on Saturday.
After missing Friday's team championships with an injury during presession warmups, Johnston earned a fifth-place medal in the floor exercise.
"I was kind of depressed about yesterday," he said. "So I figured I'd try to step it up today and do my best."
Johnston had a 9.45 in preliminaries but made an adjustment in the evening and posted a 9.55.
"I stuck my first pass in the morning, but then had a couple mistakes," he said. "I talked to my coach and we changed some things and I cleaned it up."
The other Johnston, Ryan, also advanced to the finals on floor exercise and tied with a couple gymnasts with a 9.4 for eighth place.
The solid start on floor exercise set the stage for senior Bryan Beth on still rings. Beth, who was displeased with his 49.6 all-around score in the preliminaries, which was the 26th-best score out of 29, only qualified for the still rings finals. Yet he made the most of it. Beth tied Lake Park's Gary Soper with a 9.2 to claim second place.
"My all-around performance today was far from my best so it feels really good to take second on rings in the finals," Beth said. "We talked a lot about finishing in the top five because in sectionals all three of us finished in the top five in at least one event so we felt we had a good chance."
Sean Johnston closed out the North Stars season when he competed on high bar. After claiming the second highest score in the preliminaries, a 9.4 there was a lot of promise for a medal, but Johnston faltered a bit and took a 9.0 for eighth place.
Geneva senior Kai Kosog closed out his stellar career for the Vikings by tying for eighth place in the all-around with a 52.2.
"I wanted to finish in the top 10, so I was right on target there," he said.
Kosog advanced on pommel horse and floor exercise where he finished in sixth place and 11th place, respectively.
"I just missed fifth on horse, so I finished pretty well, and on floor I've been on that all year," Kosog said. "To make finals on two events, and to just miss two others, I'd say overall it was a pretty good meet."
And a pretty good high school career too.
"I've come a long way," he said. "I only started in seventh or eighth grade so I've definitely been satisfied with this experience."