Area teams looking for state title

The top three teams and best-scoring at-large team heading into Friday’s IHSA boys gymnastics state finals are all aiming for something they haven’t had in awhile, or never had at all.

Lincoln-Way co-op, runner-up the past three years, is vying for its first state title since 2006.

Wheaton co-op, which has advanced to the state finals the past three years, will try to win its first state title since 2005, when it finished comfortably ahead of Lincoln-Way.

Downers Grove North, which will compete as one of the elite teams in the state for the fifth consecutive year, is looking for its first piece of hardware. The Trojans had a school-best fourth-place finish last May and will look to snag a trophy by finishing in the Top 3 on Friday.

Naperville North hasn’t made an appearance since Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, the first film in the Harry Potter series, debuted. The Huskies won it all back in 2001, but it’s taken them and coach Brad Foerch 10 long years to find their way back.

The four teams will compete along with Glenbrook South, Highland Park co-op, Mundelein and Palatine at Lincoln-Way East in Frankfort, beginning at 6 p.m. Friday.

“Our last four to five meets have been about setting up and competing and then walking the equipment back upstairs,” Wheaton coach Chad Downie said. “We’re ready to go to Lincoln-Way and have an away meet. We’re going there to do one thing: to a win a state championship.”

Downie has prepared his gymnasts all season for what lies ahead Friday. Now he hopes it’ll be enough to finish on top.

“Hopefully, we’ll have enough to get Lincoln-Way, but Skip’s (Adamson) a great coach, has a good team and we look very similar from what I understand,” Downie said. “This is the first year we haven’t seen Lincoln-Way head-to-head. That’s just the way the schedule worked up, but it should be pretty fun.”

Wheaton’s biggest contributions come from seniors Mike Brackmann and Darren Fill, two staples of the program who have been difference-makers since they were freshmen. Both will look to post big all-around scores.

“Friday night is going to be so much fun and everyone is going to be amped up and excited,” Fill said. “I’m really excited we’re in this position and going out like this. I couldn’t be happier and I know that whatever happens I’ve got several guys backing me up.”

Freshman Ethan Sansone competes in everything but still rings, but like it has done all season, Wheaton counts on contributions from multi-event specialists Zack Neal, Mark Ciesielski, Charlie Fisher and Danny Heller and single-event specialists Chris Jordan, Max Jurkowski and Nick Ronaldson. The team lost Bayly Shelly to an injury a few weeks ago, but Shelly is expected to compete Friday.

Ajani Cargle leads the talented and experienced Lincoln-Way squad. Cargle posted the best all-around total in all of the sectionals. Lincoln-Way features five seniors in Jake Gratkowski, Evan Hosman, Ryan Reif, Victor Valencia and Tyler Yost, and similar to Wheaton, often needs a contributing score on an event from specialists Brent Schneider, Zack Beecher and Brandon Oboikovitz.

“I’ve talked to Ajani and he talks about them working on the little things to get them better and that’s the same thing we’re doing,” Brackmann said. “It’s going to be real exciting to go one-on-one with them, but you can’t forget about Downers (Grove North) and the other teams in the mix, because they’re great teams too.”

Downers Grove North differs from Wheaton and Lincoln-Way in that the Trojans have three strong all-arounders in senior Luke Schubert, junior Luke Wychocki and freshman Starhinja Sopcic, but they also boast their share of strong specialists, including Matt Rakow, who won the floor at the Downers North sectional with a 9.3 and John Schubert, who was fourth with an 8.95.

“The kids are excited they did well (at sectional) and have their goal set high, which is good,” Downers Grove North coach Al Bekkedal said. “We had to count a fall on vault and had a couple routines here and there we could’ve scored better, but we’ll try to stay focused, hit as many routines and whatever happens, happens.”

Naperville North had to wait until the final two sectionals took place Saturday to ensure it would advance as an at-large team. With a merely 1.8 points separating the sectional scores of Palatine (150.15), Mundelein (150.1), Naperville North (149.65) and Highland Park (148.35), if teams stick to the ballpark they’ve been scoring in, it should present quite an interesting battle for fourth place. A trio of all-arounders, Billy Suta, Josh Soto and Dante Reyes, lead the Huskies.

Cagle, Fill and Luke Schubert were the top scoring all-arounders in the sectionals and are the favorites this weekend. Rolling Meadows’ Marc Herff, Glenbard North’s Ryan Kennedy, Libertyville’s Craig Breckendridge, Brackmann, Conant’s Steven Rink, West Aurora’s Doug Sullivan, Wychocki and Suta are also area noteables who will look toward the top of the leaderboard.

Cargle would have to be the No. 1 favorite. The junior wasn’t pleased with his 55.6 during the Lincoln-Way East sectional. Still, gymnastics like Fill, Schubert and Kennedy have had plenty of success at the state finals before, and will do their part to challenge.

“I didn’t like my performance,” Cargle said after the Lincoln-Way East sectional. “I didn’t get a 10 everywhere so I can always do better.”

Several area gymnasts were the among the top scorers in events during sectional play and are expected to be in the running for individual championships on Saturday. Ciesielski and Kennedy both led the way on floor with a 9.55, Sullivan posted the second-highest pommel horse score of 9.3, Herff, Hersey’s Evan Reynolds and Fill were the three top still rings performers, Schubert and Suta are among the state’s best on parallel bars, and Brackmann’s 9.45 on high bar was second to none last week.

Perhaps the most intriguing individual championship for the area though will be the vault. Hinsdale Central’s Tyler Leahy, Naperville Central’s Dave Rynearson, Fill, Fenton’s Eric Owusu and Naperville North’s Dante Reyes were among the top finishers during the five sectionals.

The team championships begin at 6 p.m. Friday. The preliminaries of the individual championships will begin at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The finals start at 6:30 p.m. Everything takes place at Lincoln-Way East in Frankfort.