Mundelein turns back Stevenson
It was a narrow escape for the Mundelein boys gymnastics team Thursday night at Stevenson, but the Mustangs remained undefeated in the Independent Conference.
The battle between these two long-time rivals came down to the final rotation and Mundelein was able to hold off the Patriots 137.6 to 134.9 to win the competitive dual meet.
Mundelein (2-0) continues to miss the presence of key senior all-arounder Tim Beranek in its lineup due to a wrist injury that his kept him from competing for basically the entire season.
But the Mustangs did get their best 1-2 punch of the season from the sophomore duo of Colin McCarthy and Cameron Mueller Thursday night.
McCarthy soared to the all-around championship with an 8.56 average (51.4 points) while Mueller was not too far behind with a second-place 8.22 average (49.3 points) to help carry Mundelein to the win.
“Colin McCarthy had a good floor exercise routine, he did well on pommel horse, and he was decent on parallel bars,” said Mundelein coach Jesse Piland, whose team scored 25.0 points on vault. “Cameron Mueller came up big for us today, Kevin Franz has been getting better, and Jacob Petri (transfer student) competed on the sophomore level for the first time.”
Stevenson freshman Arie Feltman-Frank had a few bumps in the road along the way in the meet. But he still had a very solid third-place score of 46.8 points (7.80 average) in the all-around competition. Stevenson’s Jacob Guth (45.9 points) placed fourth overall.
“He (Feltman-Frank) missed pommel horse again, but his parallel bars routine looked good and his vault was decent,” said Stevenson coach Dexter Victoria, whose team scored 24.3 points on vault. “(Guth) was pretty consistent tonight and the team is getting there.”
“We’re putting in a lot of skills to get ready for the sectional,” added Victoria. “They want to reach the 140’s and the key is being able to hit routines and meet their special requirements.”
McCarthy was the individual champion on all six events with top marks of 9.4 on still rings, 9.4 on floor exercise, 8.8 on parallel bars, 8.8 on vault, 8.4 on pommel horse, and 8.3 on high bar.
Mueller was the runner-up on vault with an 8.5 while Feltman-Frank took second place on rings (8.3), high bar (8.1), and parallel bars (8.0). Guth took second on floor exercise (8.8), and pommel horse (7.6). Mueller added a second-place 8.5 on vault.
Beranek is currently wearing a splint on his left wrist and he hopes to return to the lineup in enough time to help carry the Mustangs back to the Elite Eight meet in early May.
“Time is running out and in about a week I will get this splint off,” said Beranek, who placed 27th in the state last year. “I probably won’t compete at all on floor exercise or vault, but I hope to compete on everything else. When I return I hope I can help us get a solid score that will get us to state.”