Patton, Wongkamalasai lead Fremd
Fremd’s C.J. Patton made a huge save to help him earn a second-place finish at the boys’ state gymnastics individual finals Saturday at Lincoln-Way East in Frankfort.
Patton nearly fell during the preliminaries. He was doing a Magyar, when his hand slipped off the pommel handle. But the junior instinctively reached onto the horse and was able to stay on, earning himself a 9.30.
“When I was going up, it just didn’t feel right,” Patton said. “I thought it through in my head. They key is to make it look clean.”
Patton then came back in the finals to make one of his best rides of the season, scoring a 9.65.
I never qualified to state my freshman and sophomore years,” Patton said. “I knew it would be tough to beat Ajani. He is a beast on the pommels.”
Patton was later edged by Lincoln-Way co-op’s Ajani Cargle, who had a 9.70. Cargle won all six individual events, a feat never accomplished in the 61 years of Illinois boys gymnastics.
Patton got company on the victory stand later, when teammate Bobby Wongkamalasai nailed his Yurchenko-full on the vault to finish tied for second with a 9.45. Cargle won the event with a 9.70.
“I just learned that vault,” Wongkamalasai said. “And I never stood it up before. I knew I needed something big and I couldn’t be more proud and happy the way it turned out.”
“It has been a tremendous state series and finals for us,” Fremd coach Tim Hamman said. “We had three finalists and two second-place finishes. I couldn’t ask for more.”
Fremd’s Quin Bley also made it to the finals. The senior was eighth on the still rings with a score of 8.50.
Conant also came away with a pair of top finishers. Joey Mauk was second with a 9.25 to finish while Billy Belmonte was fourth on the vault.
Mauk, who was third in the parallel bars two years ago as a freshman, roared back this season after a year off.
“It was definitely cleaner than my first one earlier today,” Mauk said. “Overall, I was happy with it.”
Belmonte, who was one of the final at-large qualifiers for the preliminaries on the vault, jumped all the way to tie for fourth in the state with a 9.40.
“I call myself an underdog,” said Belmonte, who is a senior. “Conference did not go well and neither did sectionals. But I was able to go out with a bang.”
Conant coach Paul Kim was excited with Mauk and Belmonte.
“With Ajani taking everything, it doesn’t give alot of room for anyone else,” Kim said. “It was great to see how our guys did.”
Palatine’s Jonah Hinz just missed qualifying on the floor when he received a 9.55 earlier in the day. But Hinz did make to the finals in four events.
Hinz, who was third in the all-around Friday night, finished second on the parallel bars with a 9.20, third in the still rings with a 9.15, fifth in the pommel horse with a 9.15 and an 8th on the high bar with an 8.80..
“It did pretty well for the most part,” Hinz said. “I wasn’t expecting to get three medals. I was hoping for medals on horse and rings but didn’t expect a third on p-bars.”
Buffalo Grove’s Julian Vasquez reached his goal of making the finals in the floor, the only area gymnast to do so. Vasquez threw caution to the wind in the finals, but fell twice and finished 10th with an 8.45.
“I just wanted to throw the hardest routine I could,” Vasquez said. “I don’t have any regrets.”
Mundelein’s Colin McCarthy qualified for the vault and parallel bars finals. The sophomore finished tied for second on the vault with a score of 9.45 and was sixth on the parallel bars with an 8.75.
“I didn’t have much time to think about it, so I just went out and hit it,” said McCarthy, who was one of the favorites in the floor, fell during preliminaries and scored a 9.30.
“It felt really good. I went out and gave it all I had because I knew I couldn’t get it back on the floor.”
McCarthy’s teammate, Cameron Mueller finished seventh on the rings with an 8.70.
Stevenson’s Arie Feltman-Frank also was a double qualifier in the finals. The freshman finished fourth on the high bar with a 9.15 and was 10th on the pommel horse with a 7.90.
Elgin’s Steve Merena was seventh on the parallel bars with an 8.70 and ninth on the high bar with an 8.70 while Elk Grove’s Kenji Fukuda was ninth on the pommel horse with an 8.30.