Stevenson cruises to Independent crown
The Stevenson boys gymnastics team has some big goals in the final three weeks of the season, starting with a successful defense of their Independent Conference title on Wednesday night at Libertyville.
And led by its trio of outstanding all-arounders, Stevenson did exactly that as the Pats rolled to the championship by a 160.8 to 136.0 margin over runner-up Mundelein. The host Wildcats (124.3) placed third despite not being at full strength.
Alex Hoersten (54.5) was the surprise all-around champion for the Patriots with a 9.08 average followed by teammates Mike Wilner (8.78 average) in second, and Lukasz Adamczyk (8.75 average) in third.
Stevenson will take a season-high mark of 162.6 into the Conant sectional on May 8 before a potential showdown against Lincoln-Way co-op May 14 at the state meet.
"We've been pretty consistent and I think we had a few more mistakes than normal in this meet, but they fought through it," said Stevenson coach Mike Farina, whose team scored 27.8 points on floor exercise. "They're in good shape, and they even might have been a little tired tonight."
Junior Craig Breckenridge continued to be a driving force behind Libertyville's scoring with a fourth-place 8.64 average in the all-around while Mundelein junior Scott Marthinsen (8.45 average) placed fifth overall to help lead the Mustangs to a season-high total.
"We had our best meet tonight, and if we would have done well on pommel horse we could have reached our goal of 140 points," said Marthinsen, who reached the state finals on vault last year. "At sectionals I just don't want to fall off of anything and I want to hit everything as clean as possible."
Stevenson's effort was bolstered by Scott Siegel's sixth-place 8.35 average in the all-around while Tim Beranek (48.2) helped carry Mundelein by finishing seventh overall.
"We need for Scott and Tim to have their best meets for us to hit 140's at sectionals and they both had their best meet tonight," said Mundelein coach Jesse Piland. "I'm really pleased with our team effort, and we stayed a little cleaner as a team than we normally do."
Wilner won the still rings title with a meet-high 9.6 along with a winning score of 9.1 on high bar.
Hoersten took home first place on parallel bars (9.5), and vault (9.4). Siegel was the floor exercise champ with a 9.5 while Adamczyk continued to shine on pommel horse with a first-place 9.2.
Breckenridge took home runner-up honors on still rings with a 9.3 while Adamczyk took second place on parallel bars with an 8.7. Hoersten posted second-place marks on floor exercise (9.4), high bar (8.9), and pommel horse (8.4).
"These guys are working at their limits, they're trying new things, and hopefully they'll keep improving," said Libertyville coach Curt Austin. "Craig (Breckenridge) basically went six-for-six tonight and he was very impressive."