THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2008
Long Line-Up Reaches State Championships
By BOBBY CHILVER
Journal Sports
The Journal-area will be well represented at this weekend's boys gymnastics championships as Palatine and Glenbrook South advanced teams, and individuals from Conant, Prospect, Elk Grove, Niles West, Buffalo Grove, Rolling Meadows and Leyden moved on as well.
Palatine dominated its own sectional Saturday as they pointed 158.20 to take the title. Star senior Matt Eckardt won the all-around with a score of 53.45 with wins at the floor exercise (9.65) and pommel horse (9.00), second in the high bar (9.05) and vault (9.50) and fifth at rings (8.10). Teammate Luke Schuster won the parallel bars (8.80) while Danny Weiss was first at the high bar (9.10).
Other automatic qualifiers for state were Andre Gatorano at floor (9.30), parallel bars (8.45), high bars (8.4) and still rings (8.20), David Irsay at pommel horse (8.55), Schuster at pommel horse (8.10) and still rings (8.45), Dan Murphy at pommel horse (7.90), and Eric Floberg at vault (9.30).
And although Buffalo Grove didn't place in the top-5 as a team, Steve Dugan moved on in the floor (9.25) and vault (9.40) and Jason Siebert in the high bar (7.65).
On Saturday night, host Lake Park won its sectional to advance and Conant, Prospect and Elk Grove were able to push numerous gymnasts through to the next level.
Conant was second place with a 150.60 with Prospect third (146.80) and Elk Grove fourth (134.35). The Cougars' Jonathan Snyder won the all-around with a 52.90 while teammate Steven Rink was third with a 49.20.
Snyder won the floor (9.6), parallel bars (9.05) and high bar (9.65) events while Rink was second at the pommel horse (8.40) and high bar (8.85). Lawrence Martin won the vault with a 9.50 while Snyder also qualified in the still rings (8.55) and rink in the parallel bars (8.35).
Prospect didn't attain its goal of making that final eight but it received another solid performance from star Chris Mattes and others. Mattes automatically moved on in the pommel horse (8.35) and still rings (8.70) while Jon Daoud (9.00) and Collin Wasiak (9.00) advanced in the vault, Joe Napolean in the parallel bars (8.35) and Ben Raider in the high bar (8.65).
Elk Grove's only automatic qualifier was Mike Jachura in the floor exercise (9.30).
In Thursday's gymnastics sectional, it was mostly Glenbrook South and host York dominating the competition while Niles West had its best meet of the season to advance some individuals to next week's state championships as well.
Glenbrook South star Steve Deutsch proved why he is one of the top gymnasts in the state by winning the sectional's all-around competition and advancing to state in all six events.
Also moving on for the Titans are freshman Adam Klosowiak on the floor (9.25) and Joe Giallombardo on the parallel bars (8.75) and high bar (8.2).
As a team the Titans fell short of York, scoring 155.60 behind the host's 162.50. The team did not earn an automatic berth to state but their score was good enough to get them an at-large bid and join the top eight at state.
Niles West finished third at York with a score of 136.15. Coach Steve Foerch said it was the team's highest output by about five points and exactly what they had been aiming for all year.
"We basically had a dream meet," Foerch said. "I couldn't have asked for much better from all 14 guys,"
The Wolves' performance pushed three gymnastics through to state as Andy Foerch moved on in the floor exercise (9.25), Chris Deamont in the still rings (8.15) and Chris Noche on the vault (9.1) and parallel bars (8.65).
Foerch said the guys would like to earn top tens next weekend, but a positive sectional performance was their main goal.
Filling out the sectional's top five were Niles North in fourth with 122.85 and Leyden in fifth with 122.65.
And while earning a top-five spot at the sectionals earned athletes an automatic berth to state, numerous other athletes received the good news on Sunday as they earned at-large bids. Those are given to the next 15 all-arounders and top 25 event participants who did not qualify automatically.
That list of local athletes includes Glenbrook South's Joe Giallombardo (49.95) and Prospect's Chris Mattes (49.15) in the all-around, Elk Grove's Kamil Nytko (9.15), Palatine's Danny Weiss (9.15), Conant's Steve Rink (9.05), Prospect's Joe Napoleon (9.05) and Buffalo Grove's Jason Siebert (9.0) in the floor exercise, Niles West's Joran Stein (7.95), Glenbrook South's Giallombardo (7.75) and Elk Grove's Darryl Tan (7.6) and Eric Ciesielski (7.5) in the pommel horse, Elk Grove's Mike Jachura (8.10), Glenbrook South's Alex Gerena (8.05), Leyden's Michael Outlaw (7.9), Prospect's Mike Behun (7.85) and Palatine's Chris Gongora (7.8) in the still rings, Niles West's Jake Ganellen (9.05), Glenbrook South's Adam Klosowiak (9.05) and Joe Giallombardo (9.05), Palatine's Kyle Hacker (8.95), Niles West's Andy Foerch (8.95), Conant's Jonathan Snyder (8.9) and Palatine's Chris Gongora in the vault, Prospect's Chris Mattes (8.3), Conant's Anthony Crivolio (8.25), Buffalo Grove's Steve Dugan (8.2), Palatine Matt Eckardt (8.15), Rolling Meadows' Marc Herff (8.05), Elk Grove's Mike Jachura (8.0) and Glenbrook South's Andy Park (8.0) in the parallel bars, and finally, Glenbrook South's Adam Klosowiak (8.15), Prospect's Joe Napolean (8.0), Prospect's Simon Taylor (7.55) and Niles West's Jake Ganellen (7.45) in the high bar.
The state finals take place this Friday and Saturday at Barrington High School. Preliminaries will be held on Friday and Saturday morning with the finals on Saturday evening.