advertisement

Boys gymnastics: Swanson, Godellas pace Mundelein's winning effort

With only one week left until the Independent Conference meet, host Stevenson and Mundelein had one final showdown Wednesday night to prepare for what should be an exciting final month of the 2016 boys gymnastics season.

Four meets in five days seemed to take its toll on the host Patriots, as the Mustangs were able to roll to an impressive 144.6 to 126.5 victory in this annual dual meet between rival squads.

Mundelein senior Brandon Swanson was unable to reach his season-high score of 52 points overall. But Swanson was still able to win the all-around competition with 50.8 points (8.47 average), getting past Stevenson junior Matt Krames with 48 points even.

The Mustangs (2-0 in conference) also got a third-place finish from junior Greg Godellas in the all-around with 46.2 points as Mundelein begins to prepare for the conference meet as well as its own IHSA sectional on May 5.

"We had Tyler (Collins) down on the JV tonight, and I think he would have helped our scores on a couple events," said Mundelein coach Jesse Piland, whose team scored a meet-high 25.9 points on the always difficult pommel horse event. "Greg (Godellas) had some difficulty on still rings and high bar, and we are hoping for a combined 100 points out of our top two gymnasts in every meet."

Godellas did shine with a winning score of 9.1 on pommel horse while Swanson took home first place on vault (8.9), still rings (8.4), parallel bars (8.2), and high bar (8.1). Swanson placed ninth in the state all-around last spring while Krames took sixth in the state for Stevenson's state championship team.

"My pommel horse (8.4) wasn't too bad tonight, but I think I can definitely do better on every event," said Swanson, whose team should reach its 21st Elite Eight meet in school history if all goes as planned at sectionals. "Heading into the conference meet I think we have a pretty strong team, but there is always room for improvement. The key for us is just going to be hitting our routines and making them as consistent as possible."

Stevenson (0-3, 0-2) started its busy five-day stretch last Saturday at York before finishing up the fourth meet in five days Wednesday night. The Patriots have come close to breaking the 130-point plateau on a few occasions this season, but first-year coach Joe Rogalski believes his squad will definitely reach that goal at the conference meet.

"The guys are a little bit worn out, but now we get a week to rest up and get ready for conference a week from today," said Rogalski, whose team will be hosting the conference meet. "We've got a bunch of new skills we want to pick up, and we've got a pretty solid gameplan on what we want to start working on tomorrow."

"Matt (Krames) just needs to work on his sets, he should have a good meet next Wednesday, and I don't think there is any question that we will break 130 next week," added Rogalski.

Krames was the floor exercise champion with a 9.2 while he posted second-place marks on vault (8.8), parallel bars (8.2), and high bar (7.8).

Swanson and junior teammate Yanni Wiechering tied for second on pommel horse with an 8.4 while Mundelein senior Noe Alcantar placed second on still rings with a 7.2.

Mundelein senior Ismael Antunez added a third-place 8.5 on vault to edge Godellas (8.4) in fourth place. Mundelein senior Jordan Ader showed the Mustangs' depth as he edged Godellas 8.2 to 8.1 for third place on floor exercise. Antunez also posted a third-place 8.1 on parallel bars.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.