Palatine second at Raymond Invite
The eighth annual Ed Raymond Invitational was the meet the Palatine boys gymnastics team was waiting for Friday night at Conant.
Top-ranked Lincoln-Way co-op rolled to the championship of the 13-team meet with 159.5 points, but the Pirates made a quantum leap by soaring to second place with a season-high 151.975 score.
The host Cougars locked up third place by a 144.65 to 143.23 margin over Mid-Suburban League foe Buffalo Grove. Naperville North (133.05) was a distant fifth without one of its key gymnasts in the lineup. Fremd edged Schaumburg 133.05 to 131.55 for sixth.
Palatine’s previous high score was a 147.6 in its season-opener. But having elite sophomore Jonah Hinz competing in the all-around for the first time made all the difference in the world for the Pirates four weeks before the Elite Eight state meet is held.
Lincoln-Way’s Ajani Cargle won the all-around competition with 55.3 points, while Hinz had an impressive second-place 53.05 total (8.84 average). Hinz had been competing in only four events due to a minor fracture in a lower vertebra in his spine.
“I haven’t done all-around in about five months so it was a great experience, and I did better than I expected with a different vault and a watered down floor routine,” said Hinz, who competed in club gymnastics as a freshman. “The team score was a lot better than we expected so it was a great meet for us, and we can still improve a little bit.”
Besides Hinz, Palatine also got a big boost from teammate Damian Przystal’s fifth-place 8.59 average (51.525 points).
“It was one of those meets where everything finally came together with our form, and most of the new tricks are starting to come around,” said Palatine coach Scott Hagel. “It’s nice to be scoring what we should be scoring when we have a good meet. Our entire team across the board cleaned up their form tonight.”
Conant also got a great all-around performance, as senior Steve Rink took third place with 52.1 points (8.68 average). Conant’s Brian Reedy tied for 10th with Glenbard West’s John Baldwin (45.15 points).
“They did decent, but we had an off night on still rings, and pommel horse had a couple of misses,” said Conant coach Paul Kim, whose team scored a season-high 148.7 earlier in the week. “We made a dramatic improvement the last couple of weeks, and Rink had one of his two best meets of the season. He is becoming very consistent.”
Buffalo Grove had a season-high 146.35 on Wednesday, but the Bison could not surpass that plateau, despite a ninth-place finish from Eugene Blackmon (46.4) in the all-around.
“This was our third meet this week so I think our guys were a little tired,” said Buffalo Grove coach Chris Stevens, whose team missed injured gymnast Erik Balko. “(Blackmon) had some bobbles and slight arm bends on parallel bars that hurt him, and that is his best event.”
Naperville North was ready to go above the 150-point mark, but an ankle injury to No. 3 all-arounder Dante Reyes in practice this week made that goal impossible for the Huskies.
Josh Soto (51.95) did put together a 6-for-6 meet to lead Naperville North with a fourth-place finish in the all-around. All-around teammate Billy Suta competed in only four events to rest a sore back.
“After scoring a 149 we were about a 152 with those three guys in the all-around so we were poised to move up,” said Naperville North coach Brad Foerch. “If we don’t have Reyes, it’s going to be tough, but Soto looked good as our top all-arounder tonight.”
After missing the Bohl Invite at Mundelein last Friday, Libertyville’s Craig Breckenridge was a bit rusty in taking sixth place in the all-around with 47.5 points.
Fremd was led by C.J. Patton (47.1) in seventh to nip Schaumburg’s Alex Lin (46.45) in eighth. Hoffman Estates’ Kyle Santiago (43.95) took 12th overall.
Fremd’s Bobby Wongkamalasai was the vault champion with a 9.35, while Rink took first place on floor with a 9.5. Wongkamalasai (9.4) tied for second on floor, while Buffalo Grove’s Kyle Chamberlain (9.2) placed third on vault.
Kyle Siebert added a third-place 8.6 on rings for Buffalo Grove, while Conant’s Billy Belmonte (9.15) placed fourth on vault.