Downers Grove North rolls at sectional
Two Lukes and a Starhinja.
Luke Schubert, Luke Wychocki and Starhinja Sopcic finished in first, second and third place, respectively, in Friday’s Downers Grove North boys gymnastics sectional to lead the Trojans to the title and earn them a trip to next weekend’s IHSA state finals in Frankfort.
Downers Grove North finished with a 157.65, well ahead of the 130.5 posted by runner-up Niles North.
Schubert won parallel bars with a 9.4, pommel horse with a 9.1 and tied teammate Matthew Rakow for the top spot on floor with a 9.3.
Wychocki was second on vault, parallel bars and pommel horse. He won high bar with an 8.95.
“Even though we missed a few things, we still got our highest score of the season,” Wychocki said. “It feels so good to go to state. Right now we’re going in there as the third team but we know that 157 can be pushed toward 160.”
Sopcic was second on still rings with an 8.65 and tied for third on parallel bars with an 8.75.
“He’s worked his butt off and it’s so good to have him on the team,” Wychocki said. “He’s a beast on rings. He’s working on them 24/7. I think he goes home and has a ring set there.”
Other strong contributions from the winners came from: John Schubert, who was third on high bar with an 8.25 and fourth on floor with an 8.95; Lee Walter, who tied for third on parallel bars with an 8.75; and Rakow, who in addition to sharing top honors on floor, was fourth on high bar with a 7.7.
“We had a good meet today,” Downers Grove North coach Al Bekkedal said. “The kids are excited they did well and have their goal set high, which is good.”
Fenton’s Eric Owusu won vault with a 9.4 and also qualified for state on floor with an 8.75.
It was a very good new chapter to Owusu’s season. The junior was injured and taken away via amburlance at the Fred Dennis Invite on April 9. Owusu was out of action for 11 days and only had a few days of practice before his conference meet. Having lost some of his strength during his time away, Owusu wasn’t sure how he’d fare on Friday.
“I went for the vault title and did it, so I’m very happy,” he said. “I still think I could’ve got better bonus, but this was a good vault for me and I just so excited after I stuck it.”
Fenton senior Nick Dawson also advanced on vault, taking fourth with a 9.
Luis Catalan took sixth on still rings and Norman Vitellaro was sixth on floor for the Bison. Both could advance to state as at-large qualifiers.
Fenton took fifth as a team with a 116.950, followed by Willowbrook’s 106.25 and York’s 105.85.
In the past two weeks Willowbrook lost senior captain Garret Acker, top all-arounder Cody Golz and freshman Colton Bach. None of the three competed in the sectional.
“It was a tough season,” Willowbrook coach Ryan Dengel said. “But we were still able to finish with a new season high, and the guys finished some routines the best they possibly could.”
York freshman Bryce Simpson was sixth on pommel horse with a 7.65.