Prospect stays perfect with win over Elk Grove

For much of the past decade, Prospect and Elk Grove's boys gymnastics teams have been near the top of the Mid-Suburban East standings.

"This has always been an important dual meet with Elk Grove," said Prospect veteran coach Pat Kivland, who has run the program for 35 years. "We've had some good run-ins with them. You can even go back seven or eight years when we were both in the 150s."

The two teams were in the 130s Tuesday night, with the Knights posting a 136.3-130.6 victory.

Prospect improved to 3-0 in the East while Elk Grove is 1-1.

"Coach Kivi put a lot of pressure on us to be good tonight," said Prospect senior all-arounder Joe Napoleon (8.02 average, who won the still rings (8.4), pommel horse (7.4) and parallel bars (7.3). "We basically worked all spring break for this one meet. But we still have a lot to improve on."

Napoleon's 8.4 on the rings defeated Elk Grove's Mike Jachura (7.9) and Prospect's Simon Taylor (7.2).

"I changed my routine (on rings)," Napoleon explained. "I did the same tricks but just put them in a different sequence so they were easier to do."

The difference in the meet was high bars, where the Knights posted a pair of 8's with Ben Raeder (8.4) and Napoleon (8.2). Elk Grove' top score was a 6.9.

"Once I saw our high bars scores, I knew we had done pretty well," Kivland said. "We sure were ugly though on the rings and parallel bars. We need to do a lot more there.

"But the kids worked hard for this meet. Our scores went up by six points (from their last East win over Rolling Meadows and Buffalo Grove when the Knights scored a 129.)."

Senior Kamil Nytko got the Grenadiers off and rolling when he won the floor exercise with a 9.1 score. Prospect's Sean Grasse (8.7) and Jim Fritz (8.4) were second and third.

"Kamil's floor was pretty solid," said Elk Grove coach Bill Watts. "He just missed one skill but the rest was solid."

"Except my first fall, that was my best floor routine," Nytko said. "This was a pretty big meet for us. We didn't have the meet we expected, but it was still all right."

"The big difference was high bars," Watts said. "They beat us with some good high bars scores. Prospect is a big meet for us every season."

Elk Grove's Mike Jachura scored an 8.0 while doing his first floor routine of the season.

Junior Jim Brault, second best for Prospect on the pommel horse and still rings, returned from an ankle injury.

"He just didn't do the floor or vault," Kivland said. "He might be my all-arounder next year."

Prospect's Grasse won the vault with an 8.8 while Jachura and Nytko tied for second with 8.6s.

Football

Elk Grove senior linebacker-running back Jake Meyer, a Daily Herald All-Area selection, has committed to play at Carthage College. Meyer will play linebacker and major in graphic design.