Boys gymnastics: Glenbrook South, Glenbard East take top spots at Bohl invite
With over a month to go until the IHSA state meet is held, boys gymnastics teams continued to round into shape Thursday night at the Bob Bohl Invitational hosted by Mundelein.
When all was said and done it was Glenbrook South that rose to the top of the 10-team field as the Titans rolled to the team title with 128.95 points.
The real battle wound up being for runner-up honors as Glenbard East (121.05 points) held off third-place Maine East (119.45 points), and fourth-place Niles West (117.25 points) for the second-place plaque.
There was a very close logjam of teams after Niles West with Libertyville (114.45) taking fifth, Glenbrook North (114.40) sixth, and Buffalo Grove (114.1) seventh.
The all-around competition came down to the final rotation with Glenbard East junior Vaden Srey (8.63 average) edging Mundelein's Holden Allsbury (8.58 average) 51.8 to 51.5 for the individual championship.
"It was a good night for us, and this was our best meet so far this year," said Glenbrook South coach Brandon Tucker. "We're starting to make our big push over the next month, and I think our best event was high bar."
Mundelein's Braeden Kratz (47.65) placed third in the all-around followed by Maine East's Henry Morrison (47.25) in fourth, and Glenbrook South's Alex Ash (45.55) in fifth.
"We graduated 11 kids and we don't have the number of kids we had last year," said Glenbard East coach Wayne Hill. "We've got a lot of new kids so it's going to be challenging."
Allsbury nipped Morrison 9.0 to 8.9 for first place on floor exercise while Allsbury added first-place scores of 9.1 on still rings, and 9.1 on parallel bars.
"I thought for missing our second best guy (Sean Urban) we put on a great performance," said Maine East coach George Joseph. "I'm just really proud of the guys for the work they've put out there, and we've got a lot of work to do before conference (on April 28)."
Senior Josh King (40.6 points) was Libertyville's top gymnast in seventh overall while Srey won pommel horse (9.3), and high bar (7.7).
"He (King) is just having a great year, and he's taking on that leadership role," said Libertyville coach Josh Cimo. "There is still a long way to go, and we're looking for our own personal growth from meet to meet."
Mundelein should get a boost in its scoring when it brings some gymnasts up to varsity later this season.
"We're trying to work some guys into varsity, but they're not ready yet," said Mundelein coach Jesse Piland. "Both (Allsbury) and (Kratz) fed off each other, and they put on a good show for the home fans."
Kratz won vault with a 9.4 followed by Allsbury (9.1) in second, and Ash (8.9) in third.
Bob Bohl really put the Mundelein boys gymnastics program on the map as the Mustangs' coach from 1970 to 1985. Doug Foerch took over as coach in 1986 before Mundelein won six state crowns between 1989 and 2000.
There was some talk about the fate of boys gymnastics as an IHSA sport at the meet. This could be the final season for the sport due to fewer schools being able to field full lineups. But many coaches petitioned the IHSA recently in hopes of keeping the sport going. The IHSA is expected to make their final decision on the future of the sport in early June.