Last weekend both Glenbard West and the combined Wheaton Warrenville South/Wheaton North co-op gymnastics teams earned places among the top teams in the area.
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Glenbard West took first place with 48.55 points Saturday night in the Vic Avigliano Mustang Invitational where 19 schools from the western suburbs met at Rolling Meadows High School. Each team had only one member compete on each of the six disciplines at the invitational, with the sum of all scores combined to form the team score. Fremd finished second with 47.05 points, followed by Wheaton co-op in third with 46.7 points.
“The team performed very well,” Glenbard West head coach Frank Novakowski said. “They had a good meet, and it was a fun win for them. They are working really hard right now and gelling as a team.”
Glenbard West was led by junior Adam Grimm, who won the parallel bars with a score of 8.6.
“Adam summed it up best for our team when he held up the team plaque and said, ‘This is the definition of The Wall — every guy on our team counts,'” Novakowski said. “I thought that was an impressive statement from a guy who was the (parallel bar) champ.”
Also scoring for Glenbard West were Paul Bonokollie, who finished second in pommel horse (8.1); Timmy Le was third in floor exercise (8.7); Eric Samuta was third in horizontal bar (6.8); Adam Samuta finished fourth in still rings (7.7); and Viktor Kovalishin was fifth in vault (8.65).
“The guys on the team all know that they have something to contribute, and that helps fuel them,” Novakowski said. “It’s really got them motivated right now. Looking ahead, the team has its eyes fixed on the state meet.”
Wheaton co-op, which won the Lake Park Invitational the night before, was led by Lucas Coopman, who won the horizontal bar with a score of 7.7, well ahead of second-place Ryan Roth of Fremd (7.0).
“I’m really happy with these guys, the way they’re working hard,” Wheaton co-op coach Greg Gebhardt said. “Corey Drummond had a season high in parallel bars — it was a really good day for him. He had a 7.0 last night, so a 1.4 jump is pretty big.”
Drummond’s 8.4 was good enough for second in parallel bars. Also scoring for Wheaton co-op were, Austin Tate, who was sixth in pommel horse (7.0); Adam DeCrane, seventh in vault (8.4); Chase McClern, eighth in floor exercise (7.8); and Nate Lollini, ninth in still rings (7.4).
“Tonight is a fun meet,” Gebhardt said. “You get to see how your team lines up with kids in kind of new roles, which gives you a different perspective.”
At this point in the season, Gebhardt said he’s happy with the progress he’s seeing in his team, which has won the previous three state championships.
“I think we’re doing really well,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of improvements to make, but we’re healthy and guys are working hard, and if you’re in that position at the halfway point of the season, you’re pretty happy.”
Glenbard East finished seventh overall with 41.9 points, despite several members fighting an illness that’s been going through the team.
“They did exceptionally well,” Glenbard East head coach Joon Yun said. “They fought through (the illness), and I couldn’t be happier with their effort and the result.”
Glenbard East was led by Matt Le, who finished third in still rings with a 7.8. Kobe Mejia finished fourth in the floor exercise (8.3), and Mike McGowan finished sixth in the vault (8.6).
“Our strength is that we have many specialists who are strong in their events,” Yun said. “They have been working very hard, and the results have been showing off … We only had one guy (Mike McGowan) make it to state last year, and I hope that we will have at least three or four guys making it this year.”
Glenbard South finished 10th overall with 40.2 points, led by Steven Bean, who finished ninth in the vault with a score of 8.0. Glenbard North finished 14th overall with 38.2 points. Its top scorer was Asim Zaidi, who finished fourth in the pommel horse with 7.4 points.
“We still have a lot of skills to work on, but over the past few weeks, the team has really come together and been working with great focus and determination,” Glenbard South head coach Michael Chrissie said. “At this point, our greatest strength is probably also our greatest weakness. We have an extremely small team, so everyone has to give their all.”