Van Leer Keys Kits To 3-Peat In CSL Gym

The crowd grew silent and all eyes were on Erik Van Leer when he competed on parallel bars Wednesday night at Niles West.

The same thing happened when he started his routine on horizontal bar.

The Evanston junior isn’t just staking a claim as one of the best gymnasts in school history. He’s also becoming a crowd-pleaser.

Van Leer owned the spotlight as he captured the Central Suburban League all-around title for the third year in a row, scoring first place finishes in every event --- again --- and powering the Wildkits to an unprecedented 3rd CSL team championship in a row with a school record score of 150.80 points.

Van Leer’s all-around total of 56.00 points marked a career best for the talented junior and paced a 1-2-3 sweep by Evanston, combining with sophomore Jacob Potter (48.10) and senior Mo Frischer (45.90) to blitz the rest of the 7-team field.

Next best in the team standings was host Niles West at 137.80, followed by Glenbrook North (136.80), Glenbrook South (126.90), Deerfield (122.90), Niles North (114.40) and Highland Park (112.80).

Van Leer won gold medals on floor exercise (9.5), pommel horse (8.7), still rings (9.3), vault (9.6), parallel bars (9.6) and horizontal bar (9.3) and wore out a path to the top of the medal stand at the conclusion of Wednesday’s competition.

And the spectators couldn’t get enough of the guy whose teammates sometimes call him “Thor” because of his strength and his striking physical appearance that includes his long blonde hair.

“I didn’t really notice the crowd,” said ETHS head coach Frank Erwin, who was part of a sweep by the Wildkits after he was named CSL Coach of the Year in a vote by his peers. “There have been a lot of good gymnasts in this conference over the years, but Erik is a strong and explosive athlete who’s fun to watch. I enjoy watching him myself. I just think there’s a bigger ‘wow’ factor about him.

“He’s maybe the hardest worker I’ve ever coached. He gets done what he needs to get done every day in practice, and he has improved dramatically since he was a freshman. He’s a lot better now.”

Van Leer confessed that he doesn’t mind being the center of attention at this point in his gym career.

“I like the spotlight,” he said. “It’s new to me to a certain extent, and that makes it even more special. It is a little bit of pressure, but it’s helpful, too because it gives you a bit of adrenaline when it happens.

“I’ll never forget the first time it happened for me. I noticed it at the conference meet when I was competing on high bar as a freshman. That’s been the highlight for me so far.”

Evanston was clearly the pre-meet favorite after dominating the dual meet portion of the 2024 schedule, as the conference champ is determined by a combination of those results and the CSL championship meet. It marked the 3rd year in a row that the Kits have won the meet as well as the overall crown.

ETHS swept the top three places on horizontal bar, with Potter (7.3) and Frischer (7.2) backing up Van Leer’s winning total of 9.3 on that apparatus. Van Leer (8.7) and Potter (8.0) also placed 1-2 on pommel horse.

Frischer added a tie for 4th on parallel bars at 8.4, same as Derrick Chhay of Niles North, and Potter’s 8.5 score on vault tied for 4th with Charles Alvarado of Niles West.

For Van Leer, it wasn’t hard to take the CSL competition seriously even though the Wildkits are aiming higher as a team this year and he’s still seeking a state medal. No one took a three-peat for granted, according to the talented junior.

“I wanted to repeat and this is big for me, because I have a lot of fun when I’m competing,” Van Leer noted. “Mentally I’ve spent a lot of time trying to prepare myself for the postseason, and with a career best today, I think I did that pretty well. I cleaned up a few things, but overall it’s all about the attitude that I walk into the gym with. That tends to dictate how well I do, if I have a good head space. I just tried to focus on what I needed to do in each routine.”

“I feel much better about winning it this year than I expected to,” Erwin added. “What we did tonight is much more significant because now it sets us up for the rest of the year. You want to do your best, but I didn’t expect to break 150 at this meet.”

The Wildkits are ranked 6th in the state currently and will compete in the Glenbrook South sectional on May 4 for the right to advance to the state finals. The Illinois High School Gymnastics Coaches Association will conduct the state series instead of the IHSA, which has dropped boys gymnastics from the list of recognized sports.

“At the sectional, we all want to get the team through to State, hit clean routines --- and show off a little,” Van Leer grinned.