Patience serves Fremd’s Wongkamalasai
Fremd’s Bobby Wongkamalasai learned a valuable lesson the past couple of weeks while being sidelined with a sprained left ankle: Patience.
“I just rush myself way too much,” Wongkamalasai said. “In my head, the wheels are turning all the time. The break helped my settle my brain down and help me slow things down.”
The time off and the ability to be patient upon his return paid huge dividends for Wongkamalasai on the floor exercise Friday at the Ed Raymond Invitational at Conant in Hoffman Estates. The senior nailed his second pass on the floor, which included a round-off, flip-flop, layout, punch-front to score a season-best 9.50 to finish third in the event.
“It was nice and kind of surprised me,” Wongkamalasai said. “I didn’t want to rush coming back. I would rather wait until the end of the season for better results. And I got those tonight.”
Wongkamalasai and C.J. Patton, who was third on the pommel horse with a 9.50, led Fremd to its best score of the season with 139.05. The Vikings finished fourth behind Palatine, which was third with a 144.90. Glenbard West won the meet with a 154.35 while defending state champion Lincoln-Way co-op was second with a 153.30.
“We did pretty well,” Fremd coach Tim Hamman said. “We are close to that 140 threshold that we are striving for. We still have room to hit that.”
Palatine wobbled quite a bit, hitting just three of 30 dismounts.
“That’s just not going to do it,” Palatine coach Scott Hagel said. “We can’t even touch a Glenbard West or some of the other teams in the state with that. But I know our guys will clean it up.”
The Pirates were led by Jonah Hinz, who competed in the all-around for the first time in two weeks. Hinz scored a 52.75 to finish third behind Glenbard West’s Alex Diab, who scored a mind shattering 58.30, and defending state champion Ajani Cargle of Lincoln-Way, who had a 55.85.
Bufflao Grove’s David Kavalerchik was fourth with a 47.40 and Schaumburg’s Chris Stehlin was fifth with a 46.45. Hoffman Estates’ Kyle Santiago, Schaumburg’s Mack Mcdougall, Conant’s Brain Reedy and Prospect’s Ringo Larock were in the top 10 in the all-around.
Diab won five of the individual events, scoring 9.80 in three of those events. And each time the freshman competed, the entire Conant gym quieted and all eyes were on the 14-year old sensation, who could be the best gymnast to come out of Illinois since Bart Connor.
“He is so good,” Hamman said. “And he will just get better and better.”
Also better was Hoffman’s Jake Santiago. The junior competed on Thursday on the pommel horse and fell three times to score a 6.50. On Friday, he had a near perfect ride, to score an 8.10 and finish seventh.
“It felt great out there,” Jake Santiago said. “The difference was not falling. I need to keep doing that.”
The Santiago brothers led Hoffman Estates to its highest score of the season with a 136.06 and a sixth-place finish.
“We looked better,” Hoffman coach Ryan Brown said. “The guys have been working hard on new skills and it is paying off.”
Conant got strong performances from Billy Belmonte and Joey Mauk, who were third and fourth, respectively in the vault and Tommy Palm and Joshua Hoppe on the floor, who were sixth and seventh. It gave the Cougars a 136.25 and a fifth-place finish.
“We need some time in the practice gym to work,” Conant coach Paul Kim said. “We have been so busy these past couple of weeks. But the practice next week should help us.”