D-C grad Pasek now excelling at Illinois

Dundee-Crown alum Roger Pasek was an impact performer during his high school gymnastics career.

Pasek won a total of 3 Illinois state championships and 4 national titles during a tremendous run that same time earn a total of 22 state finals medals.

A year later, Pasek is still making an impact, but this time it's at a significantly higher level as part of the nationally-ranked University of Illinois men's gymnastics team.

Pasek and Illinois, which was ranked fifth in the country to start the week, will participate in this weekend's Big Ten Conference championships at Penn State.

Pasek has been competing in the floor exercise and on the horse and vault. As a freshman, he was ranked 11th in the nation on floor to start the week with an average score of 14.750.

"Things have been going pretty good," said Pasek, from the team bus that was on the way to the airport for the flight to Penn State earlier this week. "I'm pretty happy. We'll have to see with the Big Ten and the NCAAs coming up how it finished up."

Pasek said he wasn't sure what to expect when he came to Illinois this season.

"Coming from high school, I didn't know how I would be able to do," said Pasek. "I'm glad I'm able to contribute to the team and contribute as much as I can."

In high school, Pasek competed individually because D-C did not have a boys gymnastics team. Thus, this year has taken a little getting used to with the new team environment.

"There is a lot more responsibility now," said Pasek. "If you do something wrong, you can't just shrug it off. You have to make sure you are working as a team. If you do something wrong, it affects the whole team. You have to have that responsibility. You want to see how well you can do. I want to try my hardest and maybe make All-American. But this is a team sport first. I'm not out there competing for myself. I'm trying to compete and help this team as much as possible."

Pasek has also noted one other major difference this season.

"The work out is much more intense," said Pasek. "You are training 6 days a week for 3 hours a day. But you feel good with how much you've accomplished at the end of the week. At the beginning, it was tough. Your body breaks down quick. After awhile, you get used to it. At this time in the season, you are ready for it and you are used to it. But at the beginning it was sure different."

While Pasek has been working mainly 3 events, he said he wants to start working on the horizontal bar and parallel bars after the season. He did say his career on the still rings is probably over.

"It's probably no more rings," said Pasek. "I've injured my shoulder and back and that's not worth risking injury again and keeping me from doing other events."

Pasek has suffered from a herniated disc in his back and a torn labrum in his shoulder.

"My shoulder's been injured for awhile and my back there's a herniated disk that happened a few years ago," said Pasek. "The labrum in the shoulder is nothing serious. But doing rings would definitely affect those areas."

In terms of his favorite event, Pasek has a hard time choosing.

"The floor and the vault are pretty even," said Pasek. "I score higher on vault. Vault is easier. Floor is my best event. I've really improved on floor. I'm consistent in it. I can hit that better than I can hit the vault."

Pasek has also gained valuable experience by having 2 accomplished floor exercise performers on his team in senior Wes Haagensen (Big Ten gymnast of the year in 2007 and league all-around champion) and freshman Paul Ruggeri.

"Ruggeri is a freshman who is fantastic. I've been competing against him and Wes Haagensen is a senior all-arounder who is amazing," said Pasek. "I've been going up against them. There are a lot of people in the country that are amazing at floor. I can't wait to see how I do against them."

At the college level, fine-tuning a routine is a must, according to Pasek.

"Since I've been going here, you work on keeping everything clean and minimizing deductions," said Pasek. "You try and stick everything and have a clean landing. That's what I've been working on. The team that hits the most and hits the cleanest will win. That's what our team has been trying to do to prepare (for the Big Ten championship)."

After the Big Ten, Illinois will likely compete in the NCAA finals at Stanford. The top 12 teams compete for the national title. Illinois is currently in that fifth position.

And Pasek hopes to continue to make contributions these last few weeks.

"I figured I would have to work hard to make the team," said Pasek. "People work so hard here. I've improved so much since I've been here. I'm glad I can contribute. I'm happy I came here."

This year's Big Ten championships will be televised live on the Big Ten Network (check local cable or satellite provider). Coverage begins at 6 p.m. (central) tonight and Saturday.

Larkin grads at Valparaiso: Larkin alums Courtney LaFerle and Tracy Korth are senior key contributors to the Valparaiso softball team. Korth, an outfielder, was hitting .303 in 23 games through late this week. She had 20 hits in 66 at-bats and had scored 14 runs. Included in those 20 hits were 7 doubles and 1 triple. She also has 8 RBI. Korth has a .439 slugging percentage and a .361 on-base percentage. Korth also has 7 stolen bases and has not been caught stealing. She's made only 1 error in 29 chances.

LaFerle is hitting .265 in 26 games. She has 18 hits in 68 at-bats, including 6 doubles, a homer and 12 RBI. LaFerle has made only 1 error this season in 143 chances at first base.

Valparaiso was 17-9 overall and 2-1 in Horizon League play through Thursday.

Ebbesen at Illinois State: Former Bartlett athletic standout Kim Ebbesen is now a sophomore on the Illinois State University women's track and field team. Ebbesen and ISU competed at the recent SIU/Gill Athletics Spring Classic.

Ebbesen helped ISU to a second-place finish. Ebbesen took fourth in the women's 5,000-meter run with a time of 18:14.63.

Allison at Graceland: Larkin alum Kevin Allison is a member of the Graceland University men's volleyball team. Allison and Graceland recently concluded regular-season play with 3 matches. Allison had 8 kills, 3 block kills, 2 aces and 4 digs in a loss to Park. He also had 8 kills and 5 digs in a loss to Lindenwood and had 17 kills, 5 block kills, 2 aces and 11 digs in a setback to Missouri Valley. Through the end of the regular season, Allison had 264 kills (6th in conference play), 46 block kills and/or assists, 29 aces (3rd in the conference), 152 digs and 19 assists. Allison and Graceland will compete in conference tournament action this weekend.

Off at College wants your help: Send information and/or statistics on Fox Valley area teams playing collegiately to Mike Miazga at difibulator@aol.com.