Patrick Tener ended the final sectional meet of his gymnastics career with a limp and an ice pack, having to once again deal with pain.
Tener, a senior at Glenbrook South, injured himself twice in warmups at the Mundelein Sectional.
The scarier of Tener’s two injuries happened on floor exercise when he suffered a left shoulder subluxation for the second time in about two months. He did so on a double front on floor exercise — the same exact trick that forced him to miss about six weeks of this season when his shoulder dislocated partially.
Tener didn’t tear any ligaments in his shoulder when he first injured it. He walked to Glenbrook Hospital after school to rehabilitate it. Tener returned in time to regain his skills and confidence in his shoulder.
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Luckily, “it wasn’t as bad this time,” Tener said after the sectional. “I was able to kind of power through it. Especially at a meet like sectionals, you’re not going to take a day off.”
Tener earned two automatic state berths at the sectional. He tied for first on vault (9.10) and he tied for third on parallel bars (8.60). The top five individuals in each event automatically advanced to the state meet.
“I think that’s impressive for a guy who’s been in the gym for (only) two and a half weeks, training,” Glenbrook South coach Brandon Tucker said.
Tener, who committed to dive for IUPUI recently, also banged his left knee on the pommel horse during warm-ups. His knee was the first thing he iced when he received an ice pack from the trainer at the end of the meet — his left shoulder was the second — but he didn’t show any ill effects of the injury on vault, which was his final event of the night.
Before vaulting, Tener loosened up his knee by bending it. The further Tener bent it, the more it hurt.
“I tried getting myself used to that, so that when I’m running and bending my knees, it’s like I’ve gotten used to that,” Tener said. “Before vault, when I’m running down (the runway), I don’t want anything to be uncomfortable in my leg. I want to just be focusing strictly on the vault.”
Tener did as he normally does on vault. He sprinted down the runway at full speed and attacked the vault table. Once Tener pushed himself off of it to start his tsuk layout, he seemed to rotate at a speed that’s faster than most — an attribute that he said was key in helping him become one of the top divers in Illinois. He finished ninth at the state meet on Feb. 27.
Tener kept his legs straight on his tsuk layout. He landed on both of his feet, then took one step.
Seconds later, he was awarded a 9.1. He tied Libertyville junior A.J. Jacob for first place.
“It’s a pretty impressive vault,” Tucker said. “That’s probably one of the top-10 vaults in the state.”
One of Tener’s goals for the state meet — an event scheduled to take place at Hinsdale Central on Friday, May 13, and Saturday, May 14 — is to make it into the top five on vault.
Tener finished ninth at state in 2015. This year, he’s working on adding a twist to his tsuk. Doing so would increase the starting value of his vault to 9.9, which is the maximum amount possible.
In a season where Tener lost the majority of his practice time to injury, “one more week (of practice) might make it happen,” Tucker said.
Meet notes
* The only other Titans gymnast to earn an automatic berth to next week’s state meet was Jacob Fine. The junior took third on high bar (7.5).
* Glenbrook North’s highest finish was freshman Casey Mutchnik, who took sixth on pommel horse (8.15). Glenbrook South sophomore Lucas Pauker was sixth on still rings (8.10) and in the all-around (46.65).
* Deerfield won the Mundelein Sectional with a score of 150.25. Mundelein (147.90) was second, Buffalo Grove (142.95) took third and Glenbrook South (139.30) finished fourth. Glenbrook North had its highest-scoring meet of the season despite the most difficult scoring conditions. The Spartans finished fifth with 130.55 points.
Eric Van Dril is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @VanDrilSports