Boys gymnastics: Stevenson's Krames excels; Deerfield wins Bohl
With five Elite Eight contenders for the boys gymnastics state meet in the 19-team field, the Bob Bohl Invitational was a real showcase for top teams and individuals Friday night at Mundelein.
The push for the championship trophy was a pretty close one, but in the end it was Deerfield that edged Wheaton co-op 152.8 to 149.05 for first place in the powerful meet.
The host Mustangs easily locked up third place with 147.65 points while Buffalo Grove's short-handed squad still managed to place fourth with 141.95 points.
Hoffman Estates had a solid sixth-place showing with 135.15 points while seventh-place Stevenson and all-around champion Matt Krames hit a season-high mark with 131.8 points.
Ninth-place Libertyville (128.35 points) and 10th-place Schaumburg (126.1) were both very short-handed for the meet, as the Saxons were one of the five state-meet contenders competing with a season-high score of 146.9 earlier this season.
After scoring 52.0 points in a dual meet at Mundelein earlier this season, Krames hit a career-high 52.6 points (8.77 average) Friday to win the all-around competition.
Mundelein junior Tyler Collins took runner-up honors with 51.05 points (8.51 average) while senior teammate Greg Godellas (48.4) edged Rolling Meadows' Ben Kowalski (47.8) for seventh place.
"We are just glad that we competed hard and we should still be able to improve from here," said Mundelein coach Jesse Piland. "I thought we did pretty well coming out of the (spring) break, and Tyler (Collins) has become a rock for us."
Krames took home first place on still rings (9.2), and high bar (9.0) while adding a second-place 9.3 on floor exercise.
"Today I was consistent, I hit all six events and it all came together," said Krames, who placed sixth overall in the state as a sophomore and ninth as a junior. "It's definitely nice to see I can get a score like this, and I still have room to improve on a couple of events, especially the pommel horse."
After just missing the 130-point plateau earlier this spring, the Patriots were able to surpass that elusive goal with a consistent team effort.
"Matt (Krames) looked really good tonight, and I had to make a lot of substitutions with the rest of the team from the injuries we had on Tuesday," said Stevenson coach Joe Rogalski. "We're hoping he (Krames) has a strong finish like he did last season, he's trying to defend his floor exercise title, and hopefully pick up a few more for his senior year."
Buffalo Grove top all-arounder Daniel Gerovoy only competed in three events, and teammate Michael Trandicosta had a great performance with a third-place 8.7 on parallel bars. Gerovoy (7.9) tied for fourth on high bar, but the Bison were unable to come close to their season-high 149.3 score.
"We're not at full strength right now and he (Gerovoy) is only doing three events coming off of spring break," said Buffalo Grove coach Zack Crandall. "This is our third meet in five days so they're a little fatigued."
Hoffman Estates' Will Fernandez (47.5) placed ninth overall, and he added a stellar second-place 9.25 on vault. Libertyville's Pat Tanski (46.5) placed 11th overall.
"We started on parallel bars and we weren't as strong as we normally are, and I don't know what happened on high bar tonight," said Hoffman Estates coach Ryan Brown. "Other than that I think we did alright, and I was really proud of the improvements we made on pommel horse tonight."
Schaumburg was without the services of top all-arounder Chasen Chau, and teammate Brandon Nyborg (five events) for the big meet.
"We're a little beat up after spring break and we're down a few guys tonight," said Schaumburg coach Erik Bostrom. "A couple of guys pulled through on some new skills, but we had some pretty big bobbles."
Collins placed second on high bar with an 8.6 while Godellas (8.4) placed third on still rings. Kowalski (8.6) placed fourth on parallel bars. Kowalski, Krames, and Libertyville's Jake Reichert (9.0) wound up in a three-way tie for fifth on vault while Fernandez (9.0) placed sixth on floor.
Collins (8.5) tied for fifth on parallel bars while Schaumburg's Roshan Jamkatel (8.3) tied for sixth on pommel horse.