Stevenson's Adamczyk, Wilner set torrid pace
With the Independent Conference meet just two weeks away, consistency has become a real trademark of the Stevenson boys gymnastics team this season.
After hitting 159.0 and a 158.55 in their last two outings, the visiting Patriots were very solid again Tuesday night at Libertyville as they posted a 158.3 to 123.7 victory over the injury-plagued Wildcats.
The all-around competition went down to the wire between Stevenson senior Lukasz Adamczyk and junior teammate Mike Wilner - and Wilner edged Adamczyk 53.4 to 53.0 for first place.
After missing the Mundelein Invitational last weekend, Libertyville junior Craig Breckenridge (51.7) bounced back strong to place third overall with an 8.62 average. Stevenson junior Scott Siegel (49.4) took fourth in the all-around.
Stevenson (3-0, 1-0) will continue conference action Thursday night at Mundelein, while Libertyville (2-3, 0-2) prepares for the Conant Invitational on Friday night without the services of key seniors Jamie Kadonsky and Alex Kane. Kadonsky could be out for the season with a broken fibula, while Kane is trying to return to the lineup from a sore back.
"As long as we keep improving which they seem to be doing I'm very pleased," said Libertyville coach Curt Austin, whose team scored 24.9 points on floor exercise. "It was not a season high for him, but Craig did have a very good meet considering he's been out of the gym a lot the past week so I was pleased how he handled it."
Wilner hit a meet-high 9.6 to capture the still rings crown. He added a first-place 9.4 after landing his high-difficulty dismount on high bar.
Adamczyk continued to shine with a winning mark of 9.5 on pommel horse and he also tied for first place with Breckenridge (8.9) on parallel bars.
"I hit all of my events, but more importantly we put together a good team score tonight," said Wilner, who placed 22nd in the state all-around last year. "We're just hitting routines in practice, doing what we need to do, and this is where we get to show it."
Breckenridge and Siegel (9.2) tied for first place on floor exercise. Stevenson junior Alex Hoersten was the vault champion with a 9.2. Wilner took runner-up honors on vault with a 9.1, followed by Breckenridge (8.8) in third place.
The Patriots swept the top three places on high bar behind Wilner's 9.4, with Adamczyk (9.1) second and Siegel (9.0) third. Breckenridge added a second-place 8.6 on pommel horse, and Adamczyk (8.6) was the runner-up on still rings.
Stevenson is going through its busiest stretch of the regular season with the meet at Mundelein Thursday and a trip to the York Invitational on Saturday.
"We've got a lot of meets now back to back so we're kind of taking them as they come," said Stevenson coach Mike Farina, whose team scored 27.5 points on high bar. "We're just doing one meet at a time and we have another meet Thursday and a meet Saturday, so it's a very busy week."
Adamczyk added a third-place 8.9 on floor exercise. Wilner posted a third-place 8.2 on pommel horse. Breckenridge (8.5) placed third on still rings and Hoersten (8.7) was third on parallel bars.