Every day Kyle Pollina walks into Buffalo Grove’s gymnastics room, he draws inspiration.
Up on a wall are signs that list the top 10 individual scores in every boys gymnastics event in program history.
“That’s my main goal for this year, to get my name up there,” Pollina said.
On Friday night at the Robert Bohl Invitational at Mundelein, Pollina took a step toward earning a spot. Pollina competed in the floor exercise, parallel bars and horizontal bar. He earned top-20 finishes in two events, placing 13th with a 6.30 on the horizontal bar and 19th with a 7.70 on the parallel bars.
Pollina said he was pleased with the results. But to reach a score in the low 8s, which he said he hopes to do on the parallel bars, he must add — and execute — more challenging tricks.
“My routine is pretty easy,” Pollina said. “I do it cleanly — that’s why I do it. I have to add some difficulty.”
The Robert Bohl Invitational features one of the deepest fields of any regular season competition. Eighteen teams participated. Four of them — Stevenson, Wheaton-Warrenville South (co-op), Deerfield and Glenbrook South — have posted team scores among the 10 best in the state this season.
Buffalo Grove finished 10th with a 131.25 score, and the result against that caliber of competition indicates the Bison are making strides this spring. The previous night, Buffalo Grove put up a team score of 138.3 to defeat Hoffman Estates in a Mid-Suburban League East dual meet.
“We did far better than we were expecting,” coach Zach Crandall said. “We’ve had some big injuries.”
One injured gymnast is senior Tyler Cho. A 2014 state qualifier in four events (floor, parallel bars, vault and pommel horse), Cho hyperextended an elbow during a practice session early in the season. Cho is not at full strength but is competing in two events — floor and vault.
Against Hoffman Estates, Cho posted a score of 9.2 on the floor.
“He’s our best guy at every event except pommel [horse],” Crandall said. “Other guys have had to step up.”
On Friday, two Buffalo Grove gymnasts earned top-10 finishes in the pommel horse. The scores of junior Justin Zyck (second, 8.95) and senior Matt Scislowski (fifth, 8.80) meant Buffalo Grove joined Stevenson as the only schools to have two top-10 placers in the pommel horse. In floor exercise, senior Sasha Varvaruk finished in a tie for seventh at 8.70 with Jordan Goldberg of Niles West and Anthony Halbisch of Hoffman Estates.
On Thursday night, the Bison will travel to Hersey for a dual meet. A victory would clinch the MSL East title, the fourth in a row for Buffalo Grove.
“That’s what it is,” Varvaruk said. “We have to beat Hersey. That’s motivation.”
Just as what’s written on signs in the Bison practice room is motivation for Pollina. A member of the Buffalo Grove team that qualified for the state meet in 2013, Pollina wants to add an individual trip to his resume this spring.
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“I want to leave my legacy so people will look back and say, ‘That’s Kyle. He went to state,’ ” Pollina said.
Kerr is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter: @prepspioneer