Boys Gymnastics: Balanced Wheaton Co-op cruises at WW South

Updated: April 14, 2012 7:30PM

It’s never easy to replace two high-scoring all-arounders from a boys gymnastics team, but that was the task Wheaton Co-op faced heading into the season.

With the state series just around the corner, Wheaton Co-op seemingly has found a way to do it.

Wheaton Co-op received strong contributions from multi-event specialists Mark Ciesielski, Danny Heller, Chris Jordan and Zach Neal, as well as sophomore all-arounder Ethan Sansone to win Saturday’s Dave Donaldson Invitational at Wheaton Warrenville South with 159.26. Defending state champion Lincoln-Way Co-op was a distant second with a 150.775 in the 14-team field.

“It was just a great all-around effort,” Wheaton cC-op coach Greg Gebhardt said. “What these guys really know is team gymnastics and now we’re starting to get depth which is even better.”

Heller won high bar with a 9.5 and was second on pommel horse with an 8.9, Neal was second on parallel bars with a 9.2 and third on still rings with an 8.95, Jordan was fourth on still rings with an 8.85 and Ciesielski was fourth on parallel bars with an 8.95. Their contributions fit nicely around the all-around 51.86 points registered by Sansone who placed second. Lincoln-Way Co-op’s Ajani Cargle claimed the all-around title with a 55.825.

“We feel very good today but there are still certain things, small things, that we need to improve on,” Sansone said. “I think it’ll all pay off in the end, but this was good today.”

Glenbard West competed without standout freshman Alex Diab, who beat out Cargle in five of six events at Conant on Friday. Cargle claimed victories on parallel bars with a 9.6, as well as vault with a 9.55, still rings with a 9.4 and pommel horse with a 9.15. Fellow senior teammate Victor Valencia won floor with a 9.5.

“Ajani hasn’t gone six-for-six yet so we’re going to focus on that,” Lincoln-Way co-op coach Skip Adamson said. “But that’s true for everybody except for (Diab).”

Glenbrook South’s Kevin Hamilton was third in the all-around with a 51.675 and Glenbrook North’s Nate Elfant was fourth with a 51.05.

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