Boys gymnastics: Hersey's Mabry pulls away from the pack

It was a historic day at Mid Suburban League boys gymnastics championships at Hersey in Arlington Heights Friday.

First, Hersey's Nate Mabry had to look up his all-around finish last season in the conference meet. As a freshman last year, he finished fifth.

Mabry improved on that performance exponentially Friday. The sophomore won the conference all-around title with a score 56.85, to win the event by over 8 points.

Mabry's all-around victory had Hersey assistant athletic director Steve Messer heading to his computer to research the last Hersey gymnast to win a conference all-around title. Messer found that Mabry became the first Hersey gymnast since Mitch James in 1997 to win the conference all-around title. Mabry also became the just the sixth gymnast in school history to win the title.

"It is such a great honor," Mabry said. "To be with these guys is very special."

Mabry was dominant in his performance Friday night. He won four events outright and tied for first in a fifth event.

Mabry won the floor with a 9.60, the rings with a 9.50, the vault with a 9.40 and the parallel bars with a 9.50. He also tied Fremd's Kody Tokunaga on the high bar with a 9.50.

"I felt real good," Mabry said. "I had a full week of perpetration and. I am relatively healthily right now, so I feel good. We had a lot of support out here tonight and that helped too. I felt a little more pressure because we were missing two of our top guys."

CJ Sayavongsa was at U.S. nationals in Florida while Drew Natolicky tweaked his ankle in warmups. With state sectionals Monday right back at Hersey, Joon Yun was not taking any chances.

"We wanted to make sure we were focused for sectionals on Monday," Yun said. "We wanted to keep everybody healthy and we still did pretty well."

Hersey, which had been scoring in the mid 150's, scored a 131.675. That was good enough for a second-place finish in the conference. The Huskies still were able to win the East division title.

The Huskies also got strong performances from Sergii Demianchuk, Victor Pavlov and Logan Riley.

Fremd had its best meet of the season to win the MSL title. The Vikings had a season-best 146.35 to give them momentum going into Monday's sectional.

"The last couple of weeks this team has been coming together," Fremd coach Jason Brandenburg said. "Especially health-wise. Last week was the first time we have had everyone healthy. We are just working on putting all their skills in."

Tokunaga, who is a freshman, had a great performance on high bar. He also came back strong on the pommel horse, which he won with a 9.60.

"The pommel horse is my favorite event," Tokunaga said. "The atmosphere was great here. The adrenaline got me going and I did my best out there."

Victor Balica was second in the all-around with a 48.70.

"I am happy for our team," Balica said. "It was great to see the guys support each other."

Lukas Sciukas, who was fifth in the all-around with a 45.00, was a key contributor for the Vikings. Joseph Ferlita, Yoshi Nakagawa and Giovanni Pena also came up big for Fremd.

"We will be ready for Monday," Brandenburg said. "There is still time to get some new things in. Also, Ferlita has had some knee issues, but he could be ready to do some extra skills on the floor and the vault."

Barrington's Krish Patel was third in the all-around with a 48.30. Prospect's Andrew Littman was fourth with a 46.95 while teammate Jack Reed was sixth with a 41.275.