Impressive showing for Mundelein

The Mundelein boys gymnastics team was definitely not at full strength Tuesday night when it faced visiting Libertyville in an Independent Conference dual meet.

But even at less than 100 percent, the Mustangs showed that they are once again ready to put together a strong season after posting an impressive 138.6 to 107.3 victory over the Wildcats.

What makes Mundelein’s victory even more promising is the fact that key senior all-arounder Tim Beranek is still out with a wrist injury for another week. The Mustangs are also eagerly anticipating the addition of transfer student Jacob Petri to their lineup on March 20.

Mundelein was led by sophomore Colin McCarthy, who rolled to the all-around championship with an 8.58 average.

Sophomore teammate Cameron Mueller took second place in the all-around competition with a 7.57 average to outdistance Libertyville all-arounder Evan Policht (42.0 points) in third place.

“We still have not seen our full lineup, but I think this meet was our best showing as a team,” said Mundelein coach Jesse Piland, whose team scored 25.2 points on floor exercise. “The goal is to improve meet to meet. We have to keep working hard, and hopefully we’re back where we were last year (at state meet).”

McCarthy and Policht (8.9) tied for first place on vault while McCarthy added winning scores of 9.4 on high bar, 9.3 on floor exercise, 8.4 on parallel bars, and 8.3 on parallel bars.

“I was actually feeling a little rusty tonight and I got a little better toward the end events,” said McCarthy, who placed 17th in the state all-around last year. “We got better throughout the meet and we’ve got a lot of kids that really want to learn floor.”

Mueller took home first place on still rings with an 8.8 while Policht was the runner-up on floor with an 8.4. Mundelein’s Maurice Ruff placed third on floor with a 7.8.

“We were a little sloppy today, but we only had one day off between our last meet and today,” said first-year Libertyville coach Josh Cimo, whose team scored 25.1 points on vault. “We only hit two events today and the last meet we hit four. We lost a lot of points on form, and we were getting hit left and right on form.”

Mueller placed second on pommel horse (7.2), parallel bars (7.1), and high bar (6.7). Libertyville senior Pat Fitzgerald placed third on vault with an 8.4 to outdistance Mundelein’s Theo Vergis (8.2) in fourth.

Mundelein’s Kevin Franz took third on parallel bars (7.0) and third on pommel horse (6.5).