Wheaton off to good start
The Wheaton co-op boys gymnastics team wasn’t at its sharpest during Thursday’s DuPage Valley Conference meet against Glenbard West.
But for a team that’s expected to contend for a state trophy, winning now isn’t the biggest focus, although wins are likely to come anyway.
Wheaton co-op breezed past the Hilltoppers at Wheaton Warrenville South, 150.9-116.5.
“We haven’t done any sets yet. We’re working in new skills and sharpening techniques that have been gone or lost,” Wheaton co-op coach Chad Downie said. “So it’s a work in progress and we don’t need to win anything now. It’s the last two meets of the year that I want these kids sharp for and ready to go.”
Wheaton co-op senior Darren Fill won vault with a 9.5 and floor with a 9.2 to lead the way for the winners. Fill also tied for the top score on pommel horse and parallel bars with freshman teammate Ethan Sansoni with an 8.7 on both events, and still rings with fellow senior Mike Brackmann with an 8.5.
“We’re putting a lot of different routines together and tweaking little things,” Fill said. “There’s this difference between doing a skill and doing a skill clean and that’s where were getting to now, so it’s a development, which is good, but we have to eventually make it happen.”
Brackmann closed the competition for Wheaton co-op by winning the high bar with an 8.7.
“We had a lot more falls today than we thought we would,” Brackmann said. “But it happens and sometimes you’re not on. But we don’t have to be perfect yet, we have about two months for that and are waiting for the big goal.”
Other notable scores for Wheaton co-op included an 8.9 on vault and 5.8 on still rings from Charlie Fisher, a 7.4 on parallel bars from Bayly Shelley, a 7.5 on high bar from Zach Neal and an 8.6 on floor from Mark Ciesielski.
“We had a few little falls here and there that were surprising, but on the whole, going 150 with some falls means we’re doing OK,” Downie said. “I tell them that it’s a journey that takes three months and you’ve got to enjoy the good parts and move on and learn from the rough parts to get where you want to be in the end.”
Wheaton hopes that the end is with trophy in hand at Lincoln-Way East in the middle of May.
Glenbard West was shorthanded, without Kyle Smith and John Baldwin, who left midway through the meet due to an orchestra conflict.
Baldwin was third on still rings with a 7.1, P.J. McCloskey was third on vault with an 8.6 and Adam Solowiej was second on parallel bars with a 7.8 for the Hilltoppers.
“We were really focused on working on routines the first of couple of weeks,” Glenbard West coach Frank Novakowski said. “We were trying to amp things up a little bit today and you kind of saw a little of the result of that.”
The Hilltoppers overcame a tough night on pommel horse by doing well on floor.
“They didn’t have the best routines on horse, but they didn’t let it drag them down throughout the meet,” Novakowski said. “I was happy to see that because it’s easy to get discouraged when you’re 17 or 16 (years old) and things don’t go your way. So I was happy with how they rebounded.”