Barrington gymnasts pull away from Stevenson
While it's early in the boys gymnastics season, Barrington and Stevenson showed huge signs of improvement Tuesday night in Lincolnshire.
After building a 10.3-point lead after four events, Barrington (2-1) pulled away in the final two events to soar to a 121.3 to 105.7 nonconference victory over host Stevenson.
Both squads did struggle on the notoriously difficult pommel horse event, but the Patriots (1-2) made up for that with strong showing on floor exercise (23.3) and vault (21.8).
The Broncos were led by junior Braedon Wever, who won the all-around competition with 45.6 points (7.60 average), while Stevenson freshman Jack White (38.9 points) took second. Barrington freshman John Lacy (33.5) was third followed by Stevenson senior Ben Rudloff (31.6).
Besides Wever, Barrington senior Alex Kim (five events) had a strong meet. Kim has been unable compete on pommel horse due to a nagging injury.
"On high bar (Kim) is coming along pretty well, and he's been scoring close to 9.0 on still rings in every meet so far," said Barrington coach Rob DeFano, whose team scored 24.8 points on floor exercise and 22.8 points on still rings. "Braedon (Wever's) best event is probably floor exercise. He performed well, and he's working on some new tricks that hopefully you will see after Spring Break in the last week of March."
Wever was the floor exercise champion with a 9.2 and added first-place scores of 8.6 on vault and 7.4 on parallel bars. Kim took home first place on still rings with a 9.0. White won high bar with a 7.6.
Wever qualified for the state meet last year on floor and vault, while Kim reached state on still rings.
"I thought it went OK tonight, but there's always things I can improve on," said Wever, who has gone over the 47-point plateau in the all-around before. "I hope to make state on everything (all-around competition), and I'm confident I can do it."
Kim took second place on floor with an 8.4. White added a second-place 8.3 on vault. Wever took runner-up honors on still rings with a 7.8.
"I was really excited with Jack (White's) high bar routine, and he hit his vault-catch (on high bar), which was a last-minute decision," said Stevenson coach Joe Rogalski, whose team will compete in the always powerful Hinsdale Central Invitational Friday night. "There was a lot of improvement tonight. We had a little bit of nerves in front of our home crowd, but they really stepped up."
Stevenson junior Anthony Lang took third place on floor exercise with an 8.0 to edge White (7.9). Lacy added a third-place 7.1 on vault. White (7.0) placed third on still rings.
"John Lacy has a lot of basics that we're building on right now," said DeFano, whose team scored 22.7 points on vault. "Our high bar is coming on a lot, but our pommel horse is our Achilles right now. "They're just starting to get going so after Spring Break they should all be able to go up a couple of points."
Rogalski was also pleased with the routines that many of his freshmen are performing.
"I'm very happy with the progress that the freshmen are showing," Rogalski said. "And the young talent bodes well for a strong future for us."