Mundelein steps it up at Bohl Invitational
It was a great performance for Lake County area boys gymnastics teams Friday night at the Bob Bohl Invitational in Mundelein.
The host Mustangs showed they are truly a force to be reckoned with as they soared to a season-high 150.05 points to capture the championship of the powerful 19-team meet.
Independent Conference rival Stevenson was not too far behind Mundelein, as the Patriots also hit a season-high mark with 147.0 points to take home runner-up honors.
Glenbrook North held off Buffalo Grove 146.0 to 143.4 for third place, while Glenbrook South was a close fifth with 141.88 points. Defending state champion Lincoln-Way co-op (136.15) struggled to sixth place.
The battle for the all-around title was not a close one, as Mundelein junior Colin McCarthy soared to the crown by a 54.75 (9.13 average) to 53.1 margin over Glenbrook North’s Nate Elfant.
Stevenson sophomore Arie Feltman-Frank was third with 52.25 points, followed by Buffalo Grove senior David Kavalerchik (51.35 points) in fourth and Mundelein junior Cameron Mueller (51.3) in fifth. Stevenson junior Jacob Guth (49.38) placed eighth.
“I would say our worst event was pommel horse (22.35 points), but we had a great meet,” said McCarthy, who placed 10th in the state all-around last year. “It felt like a good meet for me even with all of the breaks. My best event was vault.”
Mundelein coach Jesse Piland was pleased with his squad’s performance in a meet named for original Mundelein coach Bob Bohl, who is now 85 years old and one of the pioneers of IHSA boys gymnastics.
“You could tell the guys had a little extra energy being in their home gym and they wanted to compete,” said Piland, whose team scored 28.05 on vault. “They got a 28 on vault, they got some momentum, and they were in the zone tonight.”
Stevenson has little depth, and Feltman-Frank, Guth and senior Kyle Weichselbaum (11th in all-around) are carrying the entire scoring load for the Patriots. But despite struggling on pommel horse with a 20.5 to open the meet, the Pats bounced back strong the rest of the way.
“I’m happy with the season-high score, but I’m disappointed that we threw away 4 points on our first two (pommel horse) routines, so we’re a potential 150 team,” said first-year Stevenson coach Eric Liva, whose team scored 26.3 points on vault. “I was really proud of the way they battled back after pommel horse and hit the next five events.”
Buffalo Grove has a season-high score of 147 this spring, but the Bison were not able to put everything together Friday night.
“We were just inconsistent, and vault was the only event where all of our guys hit together,” said Buffalo Grove coach Zack Crandall. “The goal was to be ahead of Glenbrook North and be right there with Stevenson. And we can be. We just have to put together some more routines.”
Schaumburg placed 10th with 121.88 points followed by Mid-Suburban League rivals Rolling Meadows (119.1) in 11th and Hoffman Estates (118.5) in 12th. Libertyville (117.5) placed 13th.
“We upped the difficulty in our routines and we did a little better than our average,” said Libertyville coach Josh Cimo. “But we had to count 14 falls tonight.”
McCarthy was the individual champ on vault (9.75) and floor exercise (9.5). Mueller easily won the still rings competition with an outstanding 9.5 routine.
Feltman-Frank won pommel horse with a 9.0. Kavalerchik (9.1) nipped Feltman-Frank (9.0) for first place on high bar. McCarthy took second on parallel bars (9.3) and still rings (8.8), while placing third on pommel horse with an 8.7.
Schaumburg’s Tyler Wilkerson (8.3) placed fourth on pommel horse, while Kavalerchik (9.1) was fourth on floor exercise. Weichselbaum placed third on still rings with an 8.7, while Mueller added a third-place 9.3 on vault.