Boys gymnastics: For Glenbard West it's time to wait

After several graduations from three consecutive top-two state teams, senior Len Phuong and his Glenbard West boys gymnastics teammates knew just earning another state trip required plenty of work.

"Honestly, (it was) the realization that we really need to step it up in order to get back to where we were last year," Phuong said. "Even if we weren't there, we still tried to keep that focus in mind."

The Hilltoppers have some tense waiting, but they put themselves in the best reasonable position possible Thursday with a second-place 150.05 at the Glenbrook North sectional.

Glenbard West owns the second of three at-large spots for the eight-team state field entering the final two sectionals Friday and Saturday. Two top-10 ranked teams remain chasing at-large berths.

"We talked about how the outcome didn't matter. Our improvement we showed is more important," said Glenbard West junior Alexander Demeris, who won all-around with a personal-best 55.10.

"I think we were just focusing on hitting our sets. I feel we did pretty well. We had a few mess-ups, but overall we got the majority down pretty good."

Glenbrook North's 157.65 won the sectional. Palatine was third with 143.20, with Naperville North at 134.45 and Glenbard East 130.85, followed by Glenbard North, Naperville Central and Glenbard South.

Demeris, last year's state co-champion on floor, shared the floor title with Neuqua Valley sophomore and returning all-stater Mikey Baren with 9.45s.

Demeris also won high bars with a 9.5, parallel bars with a 9.3 and still rings with an 8.85 and was second on pommel horse with an 8.9. Phuong shared third on rings.

On floor, the Hilltoppers' first event, Demeris' move into a press moved the rug covering with his feet, but he held his concentration.

"I warmed up a different way, a different angle," Demeris said. "I just focused on continuing the press from there."

This season Baren competed with four fellow District 204 freshmen and Premier West club members - Neuqua's Tyler Clark, Waubonsie Valley's Sai Nitta and Metea Valley's Zach Taylor and Arjun Sriram.

Nitta and Taylor on Thursday became the sport's first state qualifiers in the history of their schools.

"I'm the first ever in school history. It was just really cool," Nitta said. "Now the (club) season's over and I just wanted to keep doing gymnastics, doing what I love. It just means a lot. I love this sport."

The gymnasts sat together and supported each other but were in three different rotations.

"I actually scored worse than I thought I would," Taylor said, laughing. "We just started a team a month ago. It's really fun and it's been really exciting. This is my first actual meet for high school. I've been doing club for seventh years and it's been really fun,"

Baren also won vault with a 9.65 and was second on parallel bars with 9.2, shared second on horizontal bar with Nitta and Taylor at 8.8 and was third in all-around.

Taylor was fourth on vault with a 9.2 and Clark fifth on parallel bars with an 8.75.

Taylor and Nitta were fifth and sixth in all-around and Clark ninth.

"I'm really happy with it. Recently in practice, it's been a little iffy on a lot of my landings, but they felt good today," Baren said.

"It's great being in high school gymnastics. It's a totally different feeling than club gymnastics. I'm happy to represent my school and do it with my teammates."

Palatine senior Chris Waller was fifth on rings with an 8.45 and freshman Trey Wilcox fifth on pommel horse and vault to secure state trips.

Wilcox and Dominic Filchia were seventh and eighth in all-around with junior A.J. Krambeer 10th.

"It means a lot, especially that I can make it with minor injuries. I'm really looking forward to the next few years," Wilcox said. "I've really enjoyed it, a lot more than club."

This season Waller worked his way onto varsity from the junior varsity.

"I put a lot of work in for the past four years. I've been trying to make it consistent and do a lot better than last year," Waller said. "I'm just happy to make it where I made it. I felt if I worked really, really hard, maybe (state)."

Glenbard East junior O.J. Miles clinched a return state trip with fifth on floor. Joining him this year could be senior all-arounder Sean O'Hara, whose 10th-place 8.9 vault should advance at-large.

"I'm happy that I'm going to state for vault, but the rest of the meet wasn't that good for me," O'Shea said. "I'm kind of mad about that, but going to state, though, that's the important part."

Naperville North senior Michael Hunter Jr. clinched his third straight state berth with a third-place 9.3 vault. This year he shouldn't compete alone.

"This is my third year in a row going so I'm stoked and I might be going with one of my best friends (junior vaulter Colin Gerghty) so that'll make it even better," said Hunter, who also tied for eighth on floor.

Glenbard North coach Dennis Wellman felt junior had a great chance at qualifying, but junior Brandon Dao came down with strep throat and was unable to compete.

"Yesterday he said he had a scratchy throat. He called me this morning at 6 a.m. crying on the phone," Wellman said. "He really, really wanted to compete."

This may have been the last meet for retiring Naperville Central coach Glen Reimers after 33½ seasons with both the boys and girls programs.

"It's been a great run and I tell these guys you don't understand gymnastics and the gymnastics family is totally different from any other sport. Competitive and we support each other no matter what," Reimers said.