Boys gymnastics: Glenbard West goes back-to-back

The Glenbard West boys gymnastics team has enjoyed a great deal of success over the past 20 years.

The Hilltoppers have won a state title and advanced to the state finals during 13 of those 20 seasons, but one thing they had never done was win back-to-back West Suburban Silver championships.

All that changed on Friday night in Elmhurst.

Scoring a season-best 151.9 points, the Hilltoppers won their second consecutive conference title, besting impressive scores from Lyons, Hinsdale Central and Downers Grove North.

Niles West, which totaled a 153 on Thursday, is the only team to score higher than a 151.9 this season.

"We've just been focusing a lot on form over the last week or two and it showed with our highest score," Hilltoppers coach Frank Novakowski said. "We're just going to keep them healthy and work on eliminating deductions."

Timmy Le paced the winners by taking top honors on floor, still rings, vault and high bar. He also was second on parallel bars while edging Downers Grove North's Lukas Elisha, 50.45 to 50.15, to win the all-around title.

"I hit everything but pommel horse and that's something I can still work on," Le said. "It was amazing. I'm speechless."

Le said he's polished his routines quite a bit from when he started.

"I wasn't focused on form before and I wasn't in routine shape yet," he said. "I've just picked it up as the season has gone along."

Matthew Ideler, who was fourth in the all-around with a 48.55, contributed scores on four events for the winners while Shea Rudolph and Aiden Rudolph added scores on a pair of events each.

"I've always said to be happy but not satisfied," Ideler said. "We did some things that I was happy about, but we had some rough spots too that we can really pick up on."

Kevin Pallikunnel, Keith Briones, Viktor Kovalishin, Paul Bonokollie and Frankie Pham also came up with some big routines for the winners. Bonokollie won pommel horse while Pham tied for top honors on still rings.

"Every guy matters on our team, whether he's competing or cheering the other guys on," Pham said. "This was definitely one of our best meets of the season. We've been doing a lot of routines in practice and hitting and hitting and now it's paying off and we're going to keep it going."

Hinsdale Central's Ryan Leahy took third in the all-around and helped the Red Devils take third place with 145.5 points.

In addition to being the runner-up in the all-around, Elisha was part of a three-way tie for first place on parallel bars. The Trojans took fourth place with a 144.45.

York's John Gill was the Dukes lone top-five finisher as he took fourth on still rings with an 8.3. The Dukes took fifth place with 132.2 points.