Palatine’s homebodies deliver
Palatine’s Mike Jankovec and Luca Price spent their spring break not covered in sand on beach, but with the hands full of chalk dust while they labored in the practice gym at Palatine High School with the rest of their teammates.
The extra work paid off for the duo in the first meet back after the break. Each increased their overall scores by 2 points and helped lead the Pirates to a 141.10 Tuesday at Barrington. Hersey scored a 122.50 and Barrington had a season-best 97.90.
Palatine coach Scott Hagel was pleased with the performances from Jankovic and Price.
“Spring break is a time to work on new skills,” Hagel said. “And both of them worked very hard the whole week. We are going to need those extra points that they have earned if we are to contend at state this year.”
Jankovic added some giants and bales to his still rings set, where he had a season best 7.20. He also added a reverse-pirouette to his parallel bars that earned him another season-best, 8.10.
“The new tricks went pretty well,” said Jankovic, who is a senior. “It was worth it not going away for break and working in the gym. It gives a benefit against teams who do go away.”
Price struggled with his new skills during warm ups Tuesday. The junior, who added full to his floor, a pirouette to his parallel bars and to his high bar, nailed all of his new skills in the competition to earn him his highest scores in each of those events as well.
“They all went surprisingly well,” Price said. “I was a bit worried when I struggle during warm ups. I just made sure to fix my form during the meet and it worked.”
Palatine got another strong performance from Jonah Hinz. The junior had the top effort in four events, scoring a 7.90 in the pommel horse, 8.60 in the still rings, 8.80 in the parallel bars and 8.70 in the high bar.
“Jonah did very well again for us,” Hagel said. “But we scratched him on the vault and floor because he tweaked his ankle a bit.”
Matt Lee also came up big for the Pirates, finishing second in the still rings and parallel bars and third in the high bar.
Once again, Hersey dominated the floor and the vault. The Huskies had the three top scores on the floor with Tomas Reynolds’ 9.00 leading the way. Jordan Graff was second with an 8.80 and Dan Urban was third with an 8.40.
David Jackowski came away with honors on the vault with a 9.20 to finish ahead of Graff’s 8.80.
“It was pretty good,” Jackowski said. “I took a little step in the end, but I was very happy with my height on it.”
Hersey coach Mason Vernon was pleased with the performance Latif Graves.
“He is a real strong guy for us on each event,” Vernon said. “He is in the middle of our rotation, so he is not our top guy in each event. But he has been very consistent for us and he had a good meet tonight.”
Barrington has been on the upswing. Led by Chad Adams, Kurt Jacobs, Grant Kimes, Nolan Presmyk and Adam Yala the Broncos have improved by over 12 points since the start of season.
“This is a very hard sport to pick up in high school,” said assistant coach Jason Pike, who was stepping in for head coach Rob DeFano, who was ill. “But our guys have worked very hard in the gym on their skills.”