Northwest/Scouting the boys gymnastics state meet
What: 60th annual IHSA boys gymnastics state meet
Where: Lincoln-Way East High School, Frankfort
When: 6 p.m. Friday, team and all-around competition; noon Saturday, individual preliminaries; 7 p.m. Saturday, individual finals.
Last year’s results: 1. Stevenson 162.450, Lincoln-Way East Co-op 158.45, 3. Conant 154.50,4. Downers Grove North 153.40 5. Hinsdale Central 150.00,6. Glenbard North 149.05, 7. Highland Park Co-op 147.55. 8. Wheaton North Coop 146.65.
Automatic team qualifiers: Lincoln-Way East (Coop), 160.800, Wheaton Warrenville South (Coop), 158.700, Downers Grove North 157.650, Palatine 150.150, Mundelein 150.100;
At-large team qualifiers: Naperville North 149.650, Highland Park (Coop) 148.350, Glenbrook South 144.550
Area all-around automatic qualifiers: Senior Marc Herff (Rolling Meadows) 53.10, senior Steven Rink (Conant), 52.05, sophomore Jonah Hinz (Palatine) 51.65; At-large area qualifiers: Senior Damian Przystal (Palatine) 50.60, senior Nick Alcazar (Elk Grove) 48.75, senior Damian Zukowski (Elk Grove) 48.10, senior Alex Lin (Schaumburg) 47.85, senior Eugene Blackmon (Buffalo Grove) 47.60
Floor exercise area automatic qualifers: Junior Bobby Wongkamalasai (Fremd) 9.45, junior Julian Vasquez (Buffalo Grove) 9.30, senior Nick Alcazar (Elk Grove), 9.30, senior Steven Rink (Conant), 9.05, senior Marc Herff (Rolling Meadows) 9.05, senior Jaren Hinz (Palatine) 8.90, senior Damian Przystal (Palatine) 8.90; At-large area qualifiers: Senior Kyle Chamberlain (Buffalo Grove) 9.15, senior Jerry Kurty (Elk Grove), senior Damian Zukowski (Elk Grove) 8.90, junior Thomas Palm (Conant) 8.75, sophomore Dylan Rust (Rolling Meadows) 8.75
Pommel horse automatic area qualifiers: Sophomore C.J. Patton (Fremd) 9.20, senior Steven Rink (Conant) 8.95, sophomore Jonah Hinz (Palatine) 8.90, senior Marc Herff (Rolling Meadows) 8.10, sophomore Brian Reedy (Conant) 8.00; At-large area qualifiers: Junior Danny Jacobsen (Prospect) 7.60, senior Damian Zukowski (Elk Grove) 7.60, senior Alex Lin (Schaumburg) 7.50, senior Sean Murphy (Palatine) 7.40, senior Nick Alcazar (Elk Grove) 7.35, senior Erik Thorholm (Buffalo Grove) 7.20, senior Damian Przystal (Palatine) 7.00.
Still rings automatic area qualifers: senior Marc Herff (Rolling Meadows) 9.150, senior Evan Reynolds (Hersey) 9.10, senior Kyle Siebert (Buffalo Grove) 8.95, sophomore Jonah Hinz (Palatine) 8.75, senior Cullen Williams (Prospect) 8.75, senior Damian Przystal (Palatine) 8.60; At-large area qualifers: senior Jake Kobler (Fremd) 8.40, senior Steven Rink (Conant) 8.25, junior Chris Stehlin (Schaumburg) 7.75, senior Ryan Sutter (Palatine) 7.65, junior Matt Lee (Palatine) 7.60, junior James Mcdougall (Schaumburg) 7.40, senior Eugene Blackmon (Buffalo Grove) 7.35, senior Danny Medina (Hersey), 7.30, senior Jake Priester (Hersey) 7.30, senior Nick Alcazar (Elk Grove) 7.25, junior Kyle Santiago (Hoffman Estates) 7.20
Vault automatic area qualifers: Junior Bobby Wongkamalasai (Fremd) 9.30, senior Eugene Blackmon (Buffalo Grove) 9.25, junior Billy Belmonte (Conant) 9.10, senior Declan Delaney (Rolling Meadows) 9.05, senior Ricky Studolski (Prospect) 9.00, freshman Mat Sigler (Schaumburg) 9.00 At-large area qualifiers: Senior Arie Mellow (Buffalo Grove) 9.10, senior Kyle Chamberlain (Buffalo Grove) 9.05, senior Damian Przystal (Palatine) 8.95, senior Marc Herff (Rolling Meadows) 8.95, senior Alex Lin (Schaumburg) 8.95, senior Matt Bosworth (Barrington) 8.85, sophomore Jonah Hinz (Palatine) 8.85, sophomore Dylan Rust (Rolling Meadows) 8.85.
Parallel bars automatic area qualifiers: Senior Marc Herff (Rolling Meadows) 9.25, senior Eugene Blackmon (Buffalo Grove) 9.05, senior Damian Przystal (Palatine) 8.75, senior Steven Rink (Conant) 8.65, senior Damian Zukowski (Elk Grove) 8.60, sophomore Jake Santiago (Hoffman Estates) 8.45, sophomore Jonah Hinz (Palatine) 8.45. At-large area qualifiers: Junior Matt Lee (Palatine) 8.30, senior Kyle Siebert (Buffalo Grove) 8.25, junior Chris Stehlin (Schaumburg) 8.25, senior Justin Coyne (Buffalo Grove) 8.15, junior Kyle Santiago (Hoffman Estates) 8.00, junior Itaru Wakabayashi (Fremd) 8.00, senior Zach Whitehead (Hersey) 7.85, senior Doug Cooper (Schaumburg) 7.85.
Horizontal Bar automatic area qualifiers: Senior Alex Lin (Schaumburg) 8.70, senior Marc Herff (Rolling Meadows) 8.60, senior Steven Rink (Conant) 8.50, senior Damian Przystal (Palatine), sophomore Jonah Hinz (Palatine) 8.35, senior Nick Alcazar (Elk Grove) 8.35, senior Mike Caporali (Leyden) 7.60, At-large area qualifers: Senior Damian Zukowski (Elk Grove) 8.30, junior Kent Evans (Elk Grove) 8.00, senior Eugene Blackmon (Buffalo Grove) 7.90, sophomore Brian Reedy (Conant), 7.85, senior Vince Gottardo (Conant) 7.25.
Team outlook: Palatine is making its fourth appearance as a team in the state finals in five years under coach Scott Hagel. The Pirates were second in the Mid-Suburban meet with a 146.35, falling more than 5 points from their season high. However, they recovered in the sectional meet and scored a 150.50 to win the title ahead of Conant (143.60), which missed an at-large team berth by a point. Damian Przystal and Jonah Hinz give the Pirates depth in the all-around competition as the Pirates look to get back in the top three for the first time since 2008 when they took third place.
Individual outlook: Last year, Rolling Meadows’ Jon Scallon gave the area its lone championship when he won on the pommel horse with a 9.75 score. This season, Meadows has an all-around sectional champ competing. Senior Marc Herff, a wrestler in the winter, turned in a career-best 53.10 to win the Palatine sectional over Conant’s Steven Rink (52.05) and Palatine’s Jonah Hinz (51.65).
Other sectional champs from the Mid-Suburban League are Schaumburg senior Alex Lin with an 8.7 on the horizontal bar, Herff on the parallel bars (9.25) and still rings (9.15), Fremd junior Bobby Wongkamalasai on the vault (9.3) and floor exercise (9.45) and Fremd sophomore C.J. Patton on the pommel horse (9.2).
Facts on the frontrunners: Lincoln-Way co-op, runner-up the past three years, is looking 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 co-op. 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.
Saying goodbye: Schaumburg veteran coach Howard Rubin will be coaching for his final time this weekend. He is retiring from his head coaching job and teaching position after the season. Rubin has directed the Schaumburg boys program for the past 29 seasons and he was also the Saxons girls coach from 1983 to 1994. He says one of the best parts of coaching has been seeing three of his former gymnasts go on to coach in the MSL — Conant’s Paul Kim, Rolling Meadows’ Mike Costa and his own assistant Erik Bostrom, who will become the Saxons head coach next season. “He (Rubin) changed a lot of our lives,” said Costa, who sends out Herff as a top all-arounder in today’s state meet. “A lot of guys I know today who competed for him learned a lot from him. Now that I am a coach myself, I can really appreciate all the personal sacrifices he made for us. I probably would not have gone on to UIC and accomplished what I did if were not for his instruction.”