Boys Gymnastics: Luke Wychocki-led Downers North wins sectional

Updated: May 4, 2012 10:16PM

The Downers Grove North boys gymnastics team is going to state again.

The Trojans clinched their sixth consecutive trip to the IHSA state finals by winning Friday’s Downers North sectional with 155.6 points.

“I’m so proud of this team because no one thought we’d get anywhere this season,” Downers North’s Luke Wychocki said. “We put their foot in their mouth. We showed we’re back and better than ever.”

Like many teams, the Trojans lost some key gymnasts to graduation last summer, but not many teams returned gymnasts like Wychocki, Strah Sopcic and John Schubert.

Wychocki and Schubert tied for first place on high bar with an 8.95. Wychocki used it to push his all-around score to 52.85 and just ahead of Glenbrook South’s Kevin Hamilton (52.8) and Glenbrook North freshman Corey Snyder (52.55) for the all-around title. Sopcic finished third in the all-around with a 51.65 and Schubert was seventh with a 51.05. Sopcic also won still rings with an 8.95.

“The kids really stepped up today and had their best meet of the year,” Downers North coach Al Bekkedal said. “We looked good in practice the last few days and the warm-ups looked good. They had about as good as a meet as they could possibly have had.”

Hamilton won the pommel horse for Glenbrook South with a 9.3, while junior teammate Austin Zimmer won the floor exercise with a 9.6 and parallel bars with a 9.2.

“I was really shocked to win floor, and didn’t think I would end up doing it,” Zimmer said. “I knew I had a chance on p-bars because I’d been clean and scoring high. It was just a matter if someone could be cleaner than me.”

Glenbrook North junior Nate Elfant won vault with a 9.35. It helped the Spartans secure second with a 147.6 where they remain alive for an at-large team qualifier.

“It feels good to be a sectional champ,” Elfant said. “My vault is usually pretty good but I guess today I was really on and able to land it without falling on my butt.”

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