Boys gymnastics: Season-high for Libertyville in win over Glenbard South
With the Independent Conference boys gymnastics meet only a week away, host Libertyville showed it was ready for the final stages of the 2019 season Wednesday on Senior Night.
The Wildcats really shined as they soared to a state-high score of 160.9 points to roll to a lopsided Independent Conference victory over Glenbard South (42.4) as the Raiders fielded a very short-handed team in the dual meet.
Libertyville (8-0, 7-0) used its dynamic senior all-around duo of Matthew Richardson with a first-place score of 56.1 points (9.35 average), and Max Faber with 53.5 points (8.92 average) points to surpass the team's previous season-high score by almost 4 points.
"Both Matt and Max had season highs in the all-around for us tonight," said elated Libertyville coach Josh Cimo following the fantastic team performance. "We're coming around as a team, and we're making sure we focus on every event as a team and not as individuals."
Richardson scored a meet-high 9.7 on floor exercise to go along with winning marks of 9.4 on parallel bars, 9.4 on high bar, 9.2 with a high-difficulty vault, and 9.1 on pommel horse.
Faber took home first place on still rings with a 9.4 to edge runner-up Richardson with a 9.3 on that event.
"I'm very happy with my performance. I think we still have a lot to clean up as a team, but we're getting there," said Faber, who took 19th in the state all-around as a junior. "The goal is at least top three at state if not number one, and we're very capable as a team this year, we just have to show up. Richardson has been a huge boost to the team, not only with his scores, but he really pushes us to get better in practice."
Tyler Kukla was another senior to excel for the Wildcats on as he placed second on floor exercise (9.0), third on high bar (8.9), and third on parallel bars (8.7).
Faber placed second on vault (9.1), high bar (9.1), and parallel bars (8.8) while sophomore teammate Robert Cartwright placed third on vault with an 8.8.
"Overall we've been making some upgrades here and there on a couple of events, and Robert Cartwright was back on three events tonight," added Cimo, whose team scored 27.8 points on still rings. "It was a good team performance, but our pommel horse (24.2) was weak with a total of six falls."
Glenbard South (1-5, 1-3) was without the services of key senior all-arounder Antonio Carter as well as sophomore all-arounder Mark Johnson, who will be cleared to compete on Thursday from a broken-hand injury.
Libertyville's Grady George placed fourth on parallel bars while Glenbard South senior Josh Mozockie placed fifth in that event. The Raiders also got a fifth from Mozockie on pommel horse while teammate Val Saberiendo placed sixth on floor.
"Josh Mozockie only competed in three events due to injuries, but he will do everything except for still rings at the conference meet next week," said Glenbard South coach Lee Wood, whose team did not compete on rings or high bar due to injuries and sickness. "It's just been a rebuilding year. I graduated almost 10 guys per year for the last four years, and that's just really hard to compete with in our size of school."