Mundelein claims title at Krupicka Invite

Mundelein, Lyons Twp. and Hinsdale Central finished in fourth, fifth and sixth place, respectively, in the state last season, and the teams followed each other once again during Friday's Krupicka Invitational at Hinsdale Central.

In what was a two-team race, Mundelein outperformed Lyons 149.05 to 147.05 while the host Red Devils were a distant third with a 141.8.

"We just edged out Lyons and our team was so motivated throughout the whole thing," said Mundelein senior Colin McCarthy, who rolled to the all-around title with a 54.1. "I'm really proud of them for getting fueled up. I couldn't have asked for a better result from the team as a whole."

Cam Mueller added a 47.2 and Brandon Swanson a 46.45 for the Mustangs, while McCarthy took home top medals on high bar with an 8.7 and parallel bars and pommel horse with a 9.1, respectively, on each event.

Despite those victories, McCarthy was most pleased with his second-place vault of a 9.4, as well as being able compete in front of a nice-sized crowd.

"I had my highest score on vault for the season, so I was pretty excited with how that turned out," he said. "It was a lot of fun here tonight. I like to feed off the crowd and everyone cheering for me, especially on high bar. I knew the pressure on me and it's a great feeling."

Naperville Central scored a season-high 136.2 to place fourth.

"We weren't so good on high bar and were a little low on p-bars," Redhawks coach Glen Reimers said. "But pommel horse was something else. I think that was the first time we all hit pommel horse."

Sophomore Ryan Durkin took second on pommel horse with a 9 and was third on still rings with an 8.4, while senior Dom Delgrosso placed fourth in the all-around with a 47.6, third on vault with a 9.2 and fourth on pommel horse with an 8.55. The Redhawks' final contributing score on pommel horse was a 7.45 from Joe Bajek.

"I felt like some of my stuff on floor should've scored higher, but you can't really argue with the judges that much," Delgrosso said. "On high bar I know I can go higher than that so I'm looking forward to getting better and scoring higher."

Alex Pong paced Libertyville to fifth place with a 135.95 as he won still rings with an 8.6.

"I thought I did a pretty good job but definitely could always improve," he said. "It was a good experience to win it with some many other guys here. It's definitely hurting my shoulder a lot, so I'm trying to take it easy."

Naperville North, which will host the Foerch Invite on Saturday morning, was sixth with a 134.55. Brandon Louise totaled a 44.05 in the all-around to take ninth place.

"We had a couple guys make some real critical mistakes that cost us," Huskies coach Brad Foerch said. "But, it's OK. It's still a learning experience to hopefully get us ready for the end of the season."

Fremd took seventh place with a 126.7 and Ryan Roth took 13th in the all-around with a 39.3.

Addison Trail claimed ninth place with a 113.8 and Marco Martinez was 14th in the all-around with a 39.25.

The hosts Jack Schmidt took third in the all-around with a 49.5 while Lyons' Chris Rediehs was runner-up with a 51.8.