Stevenson strong at Bohl invite
Ghe 17-team Bob Bohl Invitational provided a major test for the Stevenson boys gymnastics team Friday night at Mundelein.
And while top-ranked Lincoln-Way co-op captured the championship of the powerful meet with an impressive 161.9 points, the Patriots were not far behind with a second-place total of 158.55.
Highland Park-Deerfield placed third with 144.44 points to easily outdistance the host Mustangs (133.11) in fourth, Elk Grove (130.4) in fifth, Buffalo Grove (130.13) sixth, Rolling Meadows (124.5) seventh and Schaumburg (117.05) eighth. Libertyville struggled to 12th place without top all-arounder Craig Breckenridge in the lineup.
Lincoln-Way's Isaac Kruspe (55.6) edged Stevenson senior Lukasz Adamczyk (54.85) for the all-around title, while Lincoln-Way teammates Ajani Cargle (53.4) and Ryan Mars (53.1) placed third and fourth, respectively. Stevenson's Mike Wilner (8.76 average) placed fifth overall to topple Mundelein's Scott Marthinsen (50.56) in sixth and Stevenson's Scott Siegel (49.32) in seventh.
"They are hard workers, committed to the sport, and great to coach," said Stevenson coach Mike Farina, whose team hit a 159.0 on Tuesday. "They have a lot of experience and we have some young talent coming up that we hope to develop."
damczyk's road to runner-up honors included a first-place 9.7 on pommel horse to nip elite Rolling Meadows' pommel horse specialist John Scallon (9.6) in second place. Adamczyk also won vault with a 9.6 while Wilner tied for first on still rings with a 9.4.
"I think I did pretty well and so far it was my best meet, but there are many more to go," said Adamczyk. "We think we have a solid team, we balance each other out and we like our chances."
Wilner took second place on floor exercise with a 9.25, while Marthinsen (9.0) placed third on still rings. Stevenson's Alex Hoersten (9.3) took fourth on vault with Adamczyk (9.15) adding a third on high bar (8.9) and a fourth on parallel bars (9.15). Siegel (8.8) placed fourth on high bar.
Marc Herff (48.5) led Rolling Meadows with a ninth-place finish in the all-around while Jake Mager (45.8) was Schaumburg's top all-arounder in 11th. Mundelein's Tim Beranek (44.65) placed 12th overall, followed by Buffalo Grove's Eugene Blackmon (43.57) in 13th.
"We used today as a tryout for some of our higher JV guys," said first-year Elk Grove coach Keith Mukai, whose team scored a 135-plus earlier in the week. "The bigger meets are coming up, but we had our best pommel horse and high bar today and it looks like things are starting to come together a little bit."
Both Buffalo Grove (137.1) and Rolling Meadows (135+) hit season-high marks this week, but Mundelein turned in its top score of the season Friday night.
"We've been working on some new tricks over spring break," said Mundelein coach Jesse Piland. "I couldn't be more proud of our guys, everybody is working hard, and the third scores stepped up big."
With Conant off to a great start this season with scores in the high 150's and many of the Mid-Suburban League teams scoring in the mid-130's or better, it looks like it will be a great spring for MSL squads in 2010.
"We have a hard-working young team and they're getting better all the time," said Schaumburg coach Howard Rubin, who plans to retire after next season. "Jordan (Colovos) stuck a Yurchanko vault and that was a big thing because I am not aware of anyone doing it and standing it up in a high school meet so we're proud of that."
Rolling Meadows was unable to match its performance from earlier in the busy week as was the case with Buffalo Grove and Elk Grove.
"We're coming off of a long week and the kids are a little banged up and tired," said first-year Rolling Meadows coach Mike Costa, whose team has already jumped from a 103 to a 135 this season. "We had our high score on Wednesday, but we looked a little sluggish and we weren't as sharp as we were in that meet."