Leyden needed every last tenth of a point on Friday night to capture a plaque at the Anthony J. Canino boys gymnastics invite hosted by Hinsdale Central.
Glenbard West scored 143.35 points to beat out Willowbrook (136.52) for the team title, while Leyden earned third place (131.56), just ahead of Lyons (131.41).
Leading the way for the Eagles was Alexis Vilchez, who grabbed seventh place in all-around with a score of 46.36.
“It was pretty cool, because last week we got defeated by (Addison Trail and Hinsdale South) and we beat them this time,” Vilchez. “It felt great being with my team on the podium.”
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However, Vilchez had mixed emotions about his individual performance.
“I felt like I could do better in all-around, but the score I got was actually an improvement,” he said. “I hope I can improve more and make it to state in all-around.”
Lyons’ Alex Janicki took sixth place in all-around with a score of 47.0, capturing championships in vault (9.1) and horizontal bar (8.4). He was disappointed with his 19th-place finish in pommel horse.
“The first two events, floor and high bar, they were good,” Janicki said. “I went to pommel and I don’t know what went wrong there. I did fall on the easiest skill in my routine and that never happens, so it was just a weird routine. But I learned that if you hold on to something from the past too long it will ruin everything in the future, so I’m going to forget about it and move on.”
Hinsdale South’s Adrian Siaw took first in floor exercise with a 9.5, beating out teammate Kwame Lipscomb ( 9.3).
Valentin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.