Wheaton ties Downers North for invite crown

Several of this year's best boys gymnastics teams were in Roselle on Friday night for Lake Park's Ralph W. Krupke Invitational.

While the state finals are still seven weeks away, Wheaton co-op and Downers Grove North gave those in attendance a little taste of how close the battle for state supremacy might be as the two schools tied for top honors with a 152.350.

"We did pretty well tonight after having seven or eight meets in the last 14 days," Wheaton co-op coach Chad Downie said. "They're pretty worn out. We had some bumps along the way tonight, but I was pleased with some of the new skills, and I think we'll jump toward 160 by the end of the year."

Tim Krueger led the charge for Wheaton co-op, winning the floor exercise, vault and parallel bars. Darren Fill took third on pommel horse and Mike Brackman claimed seventh place on high bar.

This invitational has proven to be a special one for the Trojans' Doug Rybar. The senior claimed the all-around title with a 55.7. Rybar, who missed last year's invitational, also won the all-around title in 2006 and 2007.

"This was a great meet with definitely a lot of tension with so many good teams," Rybar said. "It was a great pre-state meet, and it was the first time we hit all five sets on pommel horse."

A couple of other teams that are expected to make some noise in the state series were without a standout gymnast. Still, St. Charles North was able to capture third place (145.275), and Stevenson took fourth (141.770).

The North Stars, competing without Josh Clapper, dominated on high bar as Sean Johnston and Ryan Johnston took first and second place, respectively. Ryan Johnston also finished in second on vault and floor exercise, while Sean Johnston claimed second on still rings.

"Other than parallel bars the Johnstons had very good meets," North Stars coach Tom Wirth said. "We had to sort of throw things together for a third scorer, and (Sean Cannata) stepped up."

Stevenson made due with Bryan Pusateri still sidelined with Lukasz Adamczyk leading the Patriots with the fourth highest all-around total of the evening. Adamcyzk was most pleased with his winning score of 9.7 on pommel horse.

"We hit our routines, made sure to stick them and just did our best," Adamczyk said. "This is about where we've been scoring, and it'll only get better when Bryan comes back."

Conant posted a 133.650 for fifth place. Steve Rink led the team with an all-around total of 45.950.

Glenbard South finished in sixth place with a 129.425. The Raiders received a standout effort from Scott Wiedmeyer, who finished in fifth place or better in every event except for vault. The junior also took second place in the all-around with a 54.675.

"Things went pretty smooth for the most part other than a couple of hiccups," Wiedmeyer said. "Now I'll just try to clean those up and some more difficult tricks."

Host Lake Park, which won this invitational a year ago, is still rebuilding. Its total of 125.925 was a season best.

"We're not as deep experience-wise as we've been in the past, so we've kind of been starting over," Lancers coach Keith Matune said. "But we're starting to come along and that showed in our score."

Gary Soper led the Lancers with a 9.3 on still rings.