Boys gymnastics: Downers Grove North earns its break
Downers Grove North will certainly enjoy its spring break next week, especially since it was a break prior to Friday's Ralph Krupke Invite that helped spark the Trojans.
Behind a season-best 142.05 points, the Trojans held off runner-up Wheaton co-op's 139.625. Naperville North was a distant third with a 131.1, while host Lake Park followed with a 129.15.
"This was awesome," Trojans coach Tony Ciezadlo said. "It was the first time we've broke a 140, so the boys hit, and we were missing a couple key routines and one gymnast. This is a really motivator now for the kids going into spring break, because they're pumped and on Monday they'll be attacking, so I'm really pleased."
Junior Aaron Heppner led the Trojans, edging Wheaton co-op's Cade Houlihan and Timothy Christian's Scotty Schnurr, 52.3 to 52.2 for the all-around title. Heppner also won vault and high bar.
"The difference for us was having some time to prepare for this meet," Heppner said. "We had a lot of early meets in the season so everyone wasn't prepared for the season yet. When we came into this one, we did much better because we had time to get better skills and time to just clean up our form and just get better."
Tommy Vodak also came up huge for the Trojans, contributing three team scores, including winning parallel bars. Braeden Gagliano and Jonah Kopecki also delivered on three events, while Garth Hall, Sam Goedert and Asher Neil offered solid contributions as well.
Houlihan won pommel horse to lead Wheaton co-op. He also placed second on high bar and third on still rings and fifth on vault and parallel bars.
"I had been struggling a bit on horse and went out and hit it tonight so I was pretty satisfied," he said. "That's an event that we have (coach Greg Gebhardt) who is a legend in the gymnastics community so he knows what he's doing with coaching the event."
Rodrigo Ruiz and Andy Votava also contributed on pommel horse for Wheaton co-op. Ruiz also tied for fifth on floor and Marty Franz was third on parallel bars.
"It was not our best today," Houlihan said. "I personally had one of my better meets so far, but our team can do better and is going to keep getting better. I was actually kind of sick and not feeling too good in warm-ups, but something just luckily clicked during the meet."
Competing in just his second high school meet, Schnurr, who recently lost 15-20 pounds after a bout with the flu, won floor and still rings, was second on vault and third on high bar.
"I was surprised with my high bar," he said. "I've never been the strongest on high bar, but it went pretty good. It was an all right meet overall."
His coach, Joe Kermend, likes what he's seen from Schnurr.
"He's got to clean up some of his routines and he'll be up there," Kermend said. "He watered down some things tonight, which is good because he's got a state meet tomorrow for JO (Junior Olympics)."
Naperville North was called to the award stand for third place, and coach Chris Stanicek was unable to recall the last time it happened at this invite. So, yeah, it was a big moment for the Huskies.
"We're really doing well and starting to put it together at a really nice time," he said. "At this point in the gym, we're putting in a few things, but now it's really going to be routines, routines, routines after that. They're working hard in the gym and it's starting to show."
Michael Hunter Jr. led the way, taking third on vault and fourth on floor while Eric Loid was fourth on high bar and totaled a 43.85 in the all-around.
Matt Scimeca 46.15 slipped past teammate Louie Ranieri's 46.1 to lead the Lancers to fourth place with a 129.15. Scimeca was third on floor, fifth on pommel horse and tied for fifth on vault.
Mundelein's Will Ferro scored a 48.7 in the all-around while taking third on pommel horse and tying for third on parallel bars.
Conant's Isaac Lopez-Salgado took second on still rings to lead the Cougars to fifth place with a 124.5.