Libertyville takes 2nd at gymnastics meet
Aside from state power Lincoln-Way co-op, the Bob Bohl invitational was a very competitive boys gymnastics meet Thursday night at Mundelein.
Defending state runner-up Lincoln-Way rolled to the championship of the 14-team meet with 156.45 points, as teammates Ryan Mars and Isaac Kruser placed 1-2 in the all-around competition.
"We're a little banged up, but it'll be interesting next week when we see some of the top competition," said Lincoln-Way coach Skip Adams. "That will tell us a little better where we stand, but we're progressing even though we make a lot of mental mistakes."
The battle for second place was a close one, but Libertyville held off Elk Grove by a 135.88-to-133.55 margin. Rolling Meadows hit a season-high 128.3 to outdistance Barrington (126.05) in fifth. Buffalo Grove placed eighth with 116.95 points, followed by Hoffman Estates (115.65) in ninth, and the host Mustangs (115.5) in 10th.
Rolling Meadows sophomore Marc Herff took third in the all-around with a 7.94 average to nip Libertyville sophomore Craig Breckenridge (7.93 average) in fourth.
Libertyville's Ashton Coulson (7.79 average) and Mundelein's Scott Marthinsen (7.56 average) placed fifth and sixth, respectively.
"I could have done a little better on high bar and pommel horse," Herff said. "I have a lot of room for improvement on pretty much every event and almost a point on every event."
After hitting a 133.35 in a dual meet Tuesday night, Libertyville was able to clean up some of its mistakes.
"We had our second-highest score of the year and these guys competed pretty well," Wildcats coach Curt Austin said. "Our best event of the meet was pommel horse, which is kind of unique because that is such a hard event."
Elk Grove was even stronger than Libertyville on pommel horse with a 22.65 and the Grenadiers were also solid on vault with a 25.75.
"It was a back-to-back meet and we showed some fatigue on some of events compared to last night," Elk Grove coach Bill Watts said. "Mike Passarelli had a nice routine on parallel bars, and Mike Jachura did a good job on still rings."
Barrington is still competing without injured Roelle Eugenio and Tim Karsten in its lineup. But the Broncos did get a second-place 9.25 from Chris Corbley on vault and a third-place 9.3 from Kellen O'Connor on floor exercise.
Rolling Meadows' John Scallon took home the pommel-horse crown with a stellar 9.5 routine to easily topple Libertyville's John Harder (8.1) in second place.
"We had a couple of weak spots, but overall it was our best meet of the year by far, and we haven't peaked at all," Rolling Meadows coach Chris Cassidy said. "Still rings was surprisingly strong along with floor exercise, and this was our high score mainly because of those two events."
Mundelein's young squad is still fighting the injury bug, but the Mustangs are showing steady improvement even with their depleted roster.
"Mike Agosto is coming back from a very serious back injury and he was definitely not 100 percent," Mundelein coach Jesse Piland said. "Tim Beranek is very limited because of a left knee injury so he was unable to compete on floor exercise and vault."
Buffalo Grove's Eugene Blackmon placed fifth on vault (9.0), while Barrington's Jason Paz (7.1) took fifth on high bar.