Boys gymnastics: Libertyville shows new skills, tops Glenbrook North
Coming off a season-high score last Friday at the Bob Bohl Invitational in Mundelein, visiting Libertyville wanted to keep the momentum going Tuesday night at Glenbrook North.
And while the Wildcats' boys gymnastics squad did not surpass that score of 148.475 from last weekend, they still had another strong performance en route to a 146.8 to 141.9 nonconference victory over the Spartans.
With the Elite Eight state meet only a month away, Libertyville (2-1) is shaping up as a potential at-large qualifier for the pressure-packed meet if they can reach the 150-point level at sectionals.
On Tuesday night, the Wildcats were once again led by junior Max Faber, who won the all-around with 49.1 points while freshman teammate Robert Cartwright scored 45.3 to place fourth overall.
"It was not as good as Friday (at Mundelein), but we were trying new skills on all of our events and trying to up our difficulty," said Libertyville coach Josh Cimo, whose team scored a meet-high 26.2 points on floor exercise. "We had a few mistakes and landings hurt us, but it was our second highest score of the season."
Libertyville had numerous contributors across the board in the dual meet as junior Matt Neuberger led the charge on vault with a first-place mark of 8.6. Faber tied for first with Neuberger on high bar (8.5) while tying for first on still rings (8.6) with Glenbrook North's Casey Mutchnik.
Competing on five events (no pommel horse), Libertyville junior Tyler Kukla placed second on floor exercise (8.8) while tying for second on parallel bars (8.2) with senior teammate Pat Tanski. Kukla added a third-place 8.3 on still rings and a third-place tie with Cartwright on high bar (8.1).
Competing in high school gymnastics for the first time this season, Faber has been a key newcomer the Wildcats have really counted on to bolster their scoring.
"I think we did very well, and we've made huge improvements since the first meet," said Faber, who thinks his team has a shot at the state meet if all of the pieces fall into place. "I think we have a very good shot of making state and the key is sticking landings on all of our events."
Mutchnik was second in the all-around with 48.3 points followed closely by teammate Daniel Lavrentiev (47.7) in third overall. The Spartans team continues to improve dramatically as they increased their previous season-high score by five points Tuesday.
"We got Olly (Kaputska) back from a concussion and obviously he is a big score for us on high bar, vault, and floor exercise," said Glenbrook North coach Ryan Dul, whose team is 2-6 overall. "Some of the other guys are coming off minor injuries so we are on the climb and getting healthy again."
Lavrentiev won floor (8.9) and pommel horse (7.5) while Mutchnik won parallel bars (8.5). Cartwright, Neuberger, Tanski, and Kaputska all tied for third on floor with an 8.7.
"Overall we had a decent meet for the stuff we're doing, we're going to throw the new stuff today and at Conant and kick it into high gear going into conference and sectionals," added Cimo. "The skills we added helped raise the score in some areas, but we had the jitters so that brought the score back down because of the mistakes."