Stevenson produces victory in opener
There were some first-meet jitters for host Barrington on Tuesday night in the boys gymnastics season opener for the Broncos and visiting Stevenson.
The defending state champion Patriots had to overcome some bumps in the road, too, on opening night. But they were able to roll to a 141.0-94.9 nonconference victory over Barrington.
Stevenson’s senior duo of Mike Wilner and Scott Siegel proved just how important they are going to be to the Patriots’ success this spring as they placed 1-2 in the all-around competition for the Pats.
Wilner (53.4 points) was the all-around champion with an 8.90 average, including a meet-high 9.3 for first place on still rings.
“I had some ups and downs. I can say that I’m quite disappointed in myself in a couple different events, but this is the first meet, we’re working out the kinks, and it’s a good start to the season,” said Wilner, who placed 12th in the state all-around last year. “I was pretty pleased with myself (on still rings), and the only gripe that I have about it is that I took a little step on my dismount.”
Siegel (8.47 average in all-around) was also pretty sharp for his first outing of the new campaign as he hit a first-place 9.1 on floor exercise as well as a winning mark of 8.9 on high bar.
Wilner added first-place scores of 9.2 on pommel horse, 9.0 on vault, and 8.9 on parallel bars.
Wilner took runner-up honors on floor exercise with an 8.3 to topple Barrington’s Danny Cameron (7.9) in third place.
The Broncos will really miss the services of four-time state finalist Kellen O’Connor on floor exercise this season.
Stevenson swept the top three places on pommel horse, still rings, and high bar. Barrington’s Nolan Presmyk placed third on vault with a 7.9 to edge Stevenson’s Dan Foresman (7.8) in fourth place.
“Right now they did exactly what we expected them to do,” said Stevenson coach Mike Farina, whose team scored 25.6 points on vault. “It’s still real early in the season and we’re still putting our pieces together.”
Siegel posted second-place scores of 8.8 on still rings, 8.8 on vault, 8.1 on parallel bars, and 7.1 on pommel horse.
Foresman added a third-place 6.0 on still rings while Barrington’s Steve Abbott placed third on parallel bars with a 6.3. Stevenson junior Josh Tarnoff counted a third-place 6.1 for the Patriots on high bar.
Unlike last season, when the Patriots usually had plenty of depth to fall back on, this season will be much tougher without the services elite gymnast Lukasz Adamczyk, who is now competing at UIC.
Stevenson will have some other big shoes to fill in crunch-time with senior standout Alex Hoersten (third in 2010 all-around) not able to compete due to recent shoulder surgery.
Hoersten overcame a serious left wrist injury last spring before taking third overall. His most recent injury is expected to take him out of club gym competition due to a lengthy road to recovery.