Boys Gymnastics: Lyons Township’s Rediehs qualifies for first state meet

Updated: May 7, 2012 6:22PM

Lyons Township freshman Chris Rediehs’ best hope of making the state finals Saturday night might be on vault.

Rediehs qualified for his first state meet in six of seven events during the Lincoln-Way East Sectional on May 3. Rediehs will return to Frankfort for the state meet, which begins with the all-around competition at 6 p.m. Friday. Individual preliminaries will be held at noon Saturday, with finals set for 7 p.m.

Rediehs, who finished third in all-around (48.9) at the sectional, advanced in every event except still rings.

He’s ranked 10th in the state on vault (9.2), his best event at the sectional. Rediehs gained an automatic state berth on floor exercise (9.35) by finishing fourth, but is tied for 18th among all State qualifiers in that event.

“I know it will be hard,” Rediehs said. “There will be a lot of good gymnasts that will still be there. I don’t think I’ll place first on anything; maybe top-five in one or two events. I don’t think I’ll blow this meet away.”

Rediehs ranks 21st among State qualifiers in all-around, and ranks 26th on high bar (7.95). He also qualified on horse (7.4) and p-bars (8.0).

Perhaps the toughest part of competing in the state meet for Rediehs will be the fact that he didn’t make the cut on still rings. He just missed a possible at-large berth by scoring 7.0 to place 11th at the sectional. Rediehs said he was thrown off his usual routine when the rings broke before his turn at the sectional.

Meet organizers could not fix the rings, so the event was moved to an alternate gymnasium near the field house, forcing competitors to shuttle from the new still rings location back to the field house for the other five events during the meet. Rediehs said the width of the new rings in his hands were different than the ones that broke after the pre-meet warmups.

“It threw me off and it threw the whole team off,” Rediehs said. “The still rings felt a lot different. The bounce of the rings was different. The thickness of the rings was different. I don’t have big hands, so I think the rings slipped a little.”

Rediehs won’t be alone when it comes to his first state meet. Teammate Dan Gallagher will make a return appearance after scoring 7.7 on pommel horse for an at-large berth, and another repeat qualifier is Jon Brandt, who scored 9.0 on floor and 7.35 on horse. The team’s state-meet newcomer is Noah Mennemeir, who gained an automatic berth by placing fifth on parallel bars (8.05) at the sectional.

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