Palatine heats up against Fremd, Hoffman
Palatine’s Jonah Hinz said Thursday’s triangular boys gymnastics meet with Fremd and Hoffman Estates had all the feeling of a state meet.
With an overflow crowd in attendance and the gym doors open to welcome in the May-like temperatures, Hinz helped lead the Pirates to a 143.30 to finish ahead of Fremd’s 136.80 and Hoffman Estates’ 126.90.
“It was hot in here today,” Hinz said. “We were just standing around sweating. And we seem to do that at the state meet as well.”
Palatine trailed Fremd 70.5 to 69.20 at the break. But the Pirates had big performances on the parallel bars and the horizontal bar to help them to an early season lead in the Mid-Suburban West.
“It was so cool out there today,” Palatine coach Scott Hagel said. “Some of these guys worked out together when they were little kids and they were cheering for each other.
“We had a pretty good meet. It is still early in the season, but I like where we are right now.”
Hinz won four events, including the all-around where he scored a 52.10. The junior also won the rings with an 8.70, the parallel bars with an 8.60 and had a spectacular finish to his day with a superb performance on the horizontal bar that earned him a 9.10.
“Everything was pretty clean out there in my high bar routine,” Hinz said. “My jam was probably my best I had ever done. I just need to clean up my landing and some things on my other events.”
Palatine also got strong performances from Matt Lee, Mike Jankovec and Lucas Price. Lee was fourth in the all-around with a 45.10 and had a second-place finish in the parallel bars with an 8.30 and third-place finish in the horizontal bars. Jankovec was fifth in the all-around with a 43.30 and was third in the parallel bars with an 8.20 while Price was seventh in the all-around with a 37.70.
Fremd’s C.J. Patton was also spectacular with his performance on the pommel horse. Patton, who is a junior, scored a career-best 9.70 on the event to help propel him to a second place finish in the all-around with a 47.60.
“Everything just worked for me today,” Patton said. “My team was cheering for me and it was fantastic. I felt I had my best meet.”
Bobby Wongkamaisai also came up big for the Vikings. The senior, who appears to be fully recovered from the broken arm that slowed him last year, won the floor with a 9.50 and he hit his Yurchenko layout to win the vault with a 9.30.
“I have been working on the vault for a while,” Wongkamaisai said. “Last year I was 11th in state so I am working to make it this year.”
Despite losing to Palatine, Fremd coach Tim Hamman was pleased with his team’s performance, which included a second-place finish in the rings and a third in the parallel bars by Quinton Bley.
“We were really just looking to improve today,” Hamman said. “And we did that. CJ (Patton) and Bobby (Wongkamaisai ) came up with big performances today.”
Hoffman coach Ryan Brown was hoping to make a bigger splash in his team’s first meet of the season. But the Hawks received bad news earlier this week when Nick Canella was diagnosed with mononucleosis and will be lost for a month. Still, Brown was buoyed by his team’s performance.
“They did what I kind of expected them to do today,” Brown said. “We had some guys behind Nick (Canella) who came up today and did real well for us.”
Kyle Santiago led the Hawks with a third-place finish in the all-around with a 46.00, including second in the vault and horizontal bar and third in the pommel horse and the still rings. His brother Jake was sixth in the all-around with a 40.30 while Avery Johnson was eighth with a 32.10.