Just no stopping powerful Stevenson

The 35th annual Ken Scorza Invitational put the finishing touches on a very good week of competition for the Stevenson boys gymnastics team Saturday afternoon at York.

The Patriots have really established themselves as a state-title contender this spring after rolling to the championship of the 10-team meet with 160.95 points.

Stevenson's busiest week of the 2010 season started with a 158.3 Tuesday at Libertyville, followed by the Pats soaring to a state-high 162.6 Thursday against Mundelein.

Fremd was the Patriots' closest competitor Saturday with a second-place 143.75.

Third-place Highland Park-Deerfield co-op (142.3), fourth-place Naperville North (142.0), and fifth-place Addison Trail (139.85) were not far behind the Vikings.

The host Dukes placed sixth with 135.45 points to edge Mundelein (134.81) in seventh and Glenbard East (133.35) in eighth. Hersey (126.7) and Rolling Meadows (114.6) rounded out the field.

The all-around competition went down to the final event with Addison Trail's Matt Foster (55.35) nipping Stevenson senior Lukasz Adamczyk (54.9) for the crown.

"We've been staying clean, being consistent, and working hard," said Adamczyk, who hit a 55.0 on Thursday. "I've just been giving it all I can. We're shooting for the mid-160's and we hope we can get there."

Glenbard East's Kirk Jackson took third in the all-around with an 8.91 average to edge Stevenson junior Mike Wilner (8.86 average) in fourth, York's Caleb Strejc (8.74 average) in fifth and Mundelein's Scott Marthinsen (8.39 average) in sixth.

Stevenson teammates Alex Hoersten (9.6) and Adamczyk (9.5) went 1-2 in the parallel bars competition, while Adamczyk added winning marks of 9.6 on pommel horse and 9.5 on floor exercise. Foster (9.5) placed second on pommel horse, followed by Rolling Meadows' John Scallon (9.3) in third.

"We're hitting routines and that is what we have to concentrate on," said Stevenson assistant coach Dexter Victoria. "Everyone is contributing and we've got some work to do with our third scores. But we always pick up the pieces elsewhere."

Hoersten took home the parallel bars title with a 9.6, and Wilner was the still rings champion with a 9.3. York's Tim Drahokoupil was the high bar champ with a 9.3 to nip Stevenson's Scott Siegel and Foster (9.2) in a second-place tie.

Foster also took runner-up honors on pommel horse (9.5), floor exercise (9.45), and still rings (9.3).

"They're really looking good and yesterday we kind of had a rough meet," said Addison Trail coach Mike Galfi, whose team posted a season-high score. "They came in here with a new attitude today and they made a lot of corrections from the mistakes they made yesterday."

Siegel (49.75) placed seventh overall for the Pats, while Drahokoupil (49.6) was eighth in the all-around for the Dukes.

Rolling Meadows' Marc Herff, Mundelein's Tim Beranek, and Fremd's Brandon Trostrud (48.1) finished in a three-way tie for ninth overall.

"We went over 143 once before and hopefully we can keep improving on that trend so the kids did well," said Fremd coach Tim Hamman. "They did really well on floor exercise and vault and parallel bars came through a little better for us today."

Naperville North was led by Billy Suta's 13th in the all-around, while teammate Josh Soto placed 15th overall.

"We know still rings is our weak event and we would like to score at least a 24 in every event," said Naperville North coach Brad Foerch, whose team also hit a season-high score. "Pommel horse (24.2) came though today pretty well and today our scores were up on both parallel bars and still rings. So all in all, it was absolutely the best meet we've had so far."

Strejc added a third-place 9.3 on floor, while Jackson placed second on vault (9.45) and third on still rings (9.2). Foster took third on parallel bars (9.2).

"On floor and pommel horse (Herff) started off a little rough today, but he pulled it together on still rings and his best event was parallel bars for sure," said Rolling Meadows coach Mike Costa. "John (Scallon) was clean on pommel horse and he is extremely consistent on that event."