Evanston Gymnasts End 50-Year Drought

How did Evanston celebrate at the conclusion of the Glenbrook South sectional gymnastics meet Saturday?

The noon start to the competition left the athletes famished by the end --- and they went out to lunch.

Head coach Frank Erwin? He took his wife out to dinner.

Now that the Wildkits have won their first gymnastics sectional in 50 years, however, don’t believe that they aren’t still hungry for more.

A state trophy would surely be the icing on the cake.

Erik Van Leer scored first place finishes in every single event and the Wildkits as a team turned in what Erwin called “our best meet of the year” on their way to claiming the first sectional crown in school history since 1972.

A dominant performance by ETHS enabled the Kits to run away from the rest of the field with a team score of 147.35 points. Host Glenbrook South finished a distant second at 134.65. Both teams will advance to the Illinois High School Gymnastics Coaches Association state finals set to begin at noon on Saturday at Hoffman Estates High School.

The IHSGCA organization stepped into the void created when the Illinois High School Association, citing a lack of participation among member schools, decided not to sponsor a postseason series any more.

The coaches voted to change the format to allow the top 10 scoring teams --- and the top 50 individuals in each event --- to advance to the one day finals.

As a result, ETHS accounted for 22 individual qualifying berths led by Van Leer and teammates Mo Frischer and Jacob Potter, who finished 3-4 behind Van Leer in the all-around standings. Evanston’s point total of 147.35 was the third best sectional effort overall, behind only the Wheaton Co-op (161.75) and Glenbard West (149.15).

Erwin would like nothing better than to bring back a trophy to a program that hasn’t earned one since a string of 3rd place State finishes in 1970, 1971 and 1972.

“It’s huge for us to end that 50-year drought,” said Erwin, who was a high school gymnast himself the last time the Wildkits were noticed on the state map. “That was a long time ago. This is a really big deal to break that drought. The kids were really excited --- so were the parents --- and so was I. We finally crossed that threshold.

“We’re all very hungry for a state trophy. That idea seemed far-fetched before the sectional, even though we were ranked in the top five. Now --- it seems like a possibility.”

Evanston’s breakthrough came a year later than expected. The Wildkits finished second at the sectional tournament a year ago, when Van Leer was held out of that meet because he had already committed to competing at a national club meet scheduled for the same weekend as the state finals.

Now he’s got his eyes on a different prize. The talented junior earned the sectional all-around title with a score of 53.70 points, including wins on floor exercise (9.55), pommel horse (8.4), still rings (8.7), vault (career best 9.8), parallel bars (9.1) and horizontal bar (8.2).

Frischer, a senior, earned his third trip to State with his scores on parallel bars (4th at 8.5), still rings (5th at 7.75), horizontal bar (6th at 6.5), pommel horse (6th at 7.25), vault (8th at 8.5) and floor exercise (14th at 8.4) leading to his 3rd place all-around total of 46.90.

“Mo has such incredible talent, and he’s an incredibly hard worker,” Erwin praised. “He believes he can do anything, and sometimes I have to rein him in a little. He’s one of the few gymnasts I’ve ever coached who I’ve had to tell ‘you can’t do that’ and usually you’re trying to get them to do more.

“His pike double front on vault is something most wouldn’t even try, and he’s gotten really strong on rings, too.”

Potter produced in a big way for the champs on Saturday, too. He added qualifying efforts on vault (3rd at 8.8), horizontal bar (4th at 7.6), floor exercise (7th at 8.75), pommel horse (9th at 6.2) and rings (13th at 7.05), placing 4th all-around at 45.45.

Xavier Probst advanced on floor exercise (2nd at 9.35) and vault (3rd at 8.8).

“We started out Saturday on high bar, and even though the scores were very low, everybody hit for us,” Erwin noted. “Then we moved to floor exercise and it was just unbelievable, the best performances we’ve had from all five guys all year in terms of hitting their routines. First Nathan (Schlack) got a 7.8, then Mo qualified with the best routine HE’S ever done, and we just built the momentum from there.

“When it was Eric’s turn and he stuck his double back, he really nailed. It was the best I’ve seen all year.”