Van Leer Leads ETHS Gymnasts To 4-Peat

One four-peat led to another Friday night for the Evanston boys gymnastics team.

Senior Erik Van Leer won the all-around title for the fourth year in a row and sparked the Wildkits to an unprecedented fourth straight conference team title at the Central Suburban League championship meet hosted by Glenbrook North.

Van Leer, already the most decorated individual gymnast in school history, added to his impressive resume --- but didn’t score a clean sweep of first place finishes of the individual events like he did as a junior and a sophomore. Teammate Jacob Potter beat him out on pommel horse with a winning score of 8.4 as Van Leer settled for third at 8.0.

Otherwise Van Leer was at the top of his game. His all-around winning total of 54.70 was six points higher than the next competitor --- Jacob Cooper of Glenbrook North at 48.70 --- and included victories on horizontal bar (9.0), parallel bars (9.2), still rings (9.4), floor exercise (9.5) and the event where he’s the defending state champion, vault (9.6).

Evanston totaled 145.50 points to beat out the Niles co-op (141.15), the Highland Park/Deerfield co-op (131.40), Glenbrook North (128.50) and Glenbrook South (126.40) in the team competition.

The Wildkits haven’t skipped a beat despite the loss to graduation of talented performers Mo Frischer and Xavier Probst, and in fact have maintained a scoring average this spring that is just about equal to last year’s squad that earned a second place finish at the state finals.

Evanston owns the fourth highest average entering sectional competition this week and will travel to the Niles West Sectional Tuesday seeking a return trip to State. The top 10 scoring teams at all of the sectionals --- and the top 50 individual scorers in each event --- will advance the state finals now sponsored by the Illinois High School Gymnastics Coaches Association.

Van Leer’s presence has been a game-changer when it comes to bringing the program back to an elite level. Evanston also won the freshman conference title, thanks to an influx of seven up-and-coming rookies, and fell just short on the junior varsity level last week.

Head coach Frank Erwin didn’t take another title for granted even when Van Leer opted to quit competing as a club gymnast prior to the start of his senior year and chose to suit up for the Wildkits one more time.

“I knew we could be good, but I also knew it would be tough to replace Mo and Xavier,” Erwin said. “And there’s a big difference between could and will. I would have put money on the fact that we probably wouldn’t score as high as we did last year, but so far we’ve been right there.

“The key for us this year is the way we’ve had a junior (Potter) and a sophomore (Nathan Schlack) step up for us. I knew Nathan had potential --- he was a good No. 3 scorer in most events --- but he still had a long way to go. He’s really come through for us.”

Schlack spent much of the past two years sidelined by a back injury and Evanston’s winning total Friday might have been higher except that Erwin held him out of the floor and vault competition. He finished fifth on horizontal bar and tied for sixth on pommel horse to back up Van Leer and Potter (fourth on vault, fourth on rings, third all-around at 47.60).

“He asked if he could compete on floor and vault, just like I knew he would. But I told him no, because I didn’t want to chance it and I thought we could win with other guys in there,” said the ETHS coach. “That’s too much pounding on his back.

“As far as Erik’s concerned, it’s pretty big that he won that (all-around) title all four years. It’s a very short list of guys who have done that. I think he’s hitting his routines more consistently this year, and he’s more relaxed when he’s competing now, too. And I don’t think it bothered him to lose on horse. He was thrilled for Jacob (Potter).

“Erik has been much more consistent this year than in the previous three years. He’s had fewer misses and I think he’s only missed once --- maybe twice --- on vault this year. He’s a super individual in every way, shape and form, and he’s been rock solid for us this year.”