Boys gymnastics: Willowbrook wins West Suburban Gold championship

Bailey Heppner played some soccer and ran cross country and track prior to high school, but the Willowbrook junior had never given gymnastics a try.

That's nothing entirely new. It's not uncommon for a boys gymnast to first attempt the sport as a freshman. What's far more rare is for that same athlete to jump from specialist to an all-arounder in such a short time.

The Warriors are thankful that's he's developed that quickly.

Heppner's all-around score of 40.65 didn't stand out, but he contributed a key score on parallel bars and was one of seven gymnasts who came up big in the Warriors' win on Saturday morning in the West Suburban Gold meet in Villa Park.

Willowbrook finished with a 139.75, while runner-up Downers Grove South had a 137.9.

"It's a really good feeling that I can do any event that they ask me to do because it has taken a lot of work to get there," Heppner said. "It's a great feeling to win. We knew coming in that anything could happen with a fall here or there so we made sure everything counted and added up for our team."

Willowbrook sophomore Adam Sousa dominated the field in winning the all-around with a 53.6. Sousa also won pommel horse, still rings, vault and high bar, and he tied for top honors on floor.

"We knew we'd get a big challenge from Downers Grove South and we were able to beat them barely," Sousa said. "There's always going to be some mistakes and we had some little ones that we'll need to improve on."

The early morning start isn't typical, and Sousa agreed that it provided a bigger challenge.

"Coming in you're tired and it's a little hard to get going in the morning," he said. "Once you hear your teammates, though, you pick right up just like an after-school meet."

Contributions came from up and down the Willowbrook roster, including four scores from senior Ian Patete and three from junior Nick Donaldson.

Senior Joe Egan and juniors Dylan Leska, Heppner and Zach Zeffiro also contributed counting scores, including Zeffiro's floor exercise and vault, his lone two events.

Zeffiro is another quick learner who had a wrestling background, but not a gymnastics one, before high school.

"I was amazed with how I stuck my vault," he said. "I usually don't stick it like that, but I stayed committed to it and did it."

The second-place Mustangs relied heavily on Brock Herion and Evan Baird as all-arounders.

Joe Maples and Luke Oskvarek also contributed a pair of scores apiece, but it wasn't enough to upend the Warriors.

Herion won the parallel bars with a 9.1.

Kwame Lipscomb tied for first place on floor with a 9.1 to lead Hinsdale South to fourth place with a 123.15. Lipscomb also was second on parallel bars and fifth on high bar. He took fifth in the all-around with a 43.6.

Addison Trail took fifth place with a 120.0. Michal Gaik was fifth on still rings with a 7.05 and Ruben Sanchez was fifth on parallel bars with an 8.2 to pace the Blazers. Carlos Alvarez edged teammate Giancarlo Sarenceno, 39.35 to 38.05, as the team's top all-arounder.