Van Leer Vaults To Top, Leads Gymnasts To 2nd In State

Erik Van Leer could follow the example of some of the other elite gymnasts in the state of Illinois next year and go back to focusing on competing at club national tournaments.

Or he could return for his senior year at Evanston and seek the high school spotlight in the sport.

But whatever Van Leer decides to do, there’s no doubt that he’s already been a game-changer for the ETHS boys program.

The blonde-haired junior standout captured the state championship on vault --- the first individual title for the program since 1987 --- and led the Wildkits to a 2nd place finish in the team standings at the Illinois High School Gymnastics Coaches Associaton state finals held Saturday at Hoffman Estates High School.

Back on the state map, due largely to Van Leer’s presence in the lineup, the Kits soared to new program heights with their best finish since the 1967 squad won the Illinois High School Association state championship.

A co-op team from Wheaton piled up 163 points to take the team title, followed by the Wildkits at 150.7 in the 10-team field.

Van Leer rose to the top on vault with a score of 9.45 and finished 3rd in the all-around competition with a total of 54.40. He is just the 10th Evanston gymnast to claim a state crown, joining Bob Creek (horizontal bar in 1974), Richard Crim (trampoline in 1966), Bruce Keeshin (horizontal bar in 1970), Dave Macherey (vault in 1978), Rodney Pointer (vault in 1987), William Rondinella (trampoline in 1965), Jim Round (all-around in 1986), Lee Wayman (parallel bars in 1967) and Jay Zeman (trampoline in 1970).

Van Leer’s medal haul on Saturday included a 3rd on still rings (9.05), a tie for 3rd on parallel bars (9.4), a 5th on floor exercise (9.3) a tie for 8th on horizontal bar (8.55), and an 8th on pommel horse (8.65).

After skipping the state high school tournament series a year ago to get some national experience, Van Leer opted to stick with his ETHS teammates this time around.

Next year, who knows? But his selfless attitude came through when a reporter asked him what it felt like to be a state champion.

The junior misunderstood the question and answered “Not quite a champion.” His reference was to Evanston’s TEAM finish, not his own.

That didn’t surprise veteran head coach Frank Erwin.

“Erik is a very selfless person,” said Erwin, who was voted Coach of the Year by his peers in the IHSGCA. “I’m blessed to have him and blessed to have this entire group. I think he’s a great kid and I think he intends to come back next year. He’s been so big for this program.

“These other guys are his friends and he’s connected with them. They help each other out. I coach club, too, and I think he’s found out that it’s a different thing in high school, that you get something from it (team camaraderie) that you can’t get from club.

“It’s great to have a state champion. When I saw his score on vault, I thought it was low, so it was honestly a surprise to me that it held up and he won. It wasn’t quite as good as his sectional vault (9.8), but in my opinion it wasn’t 4-10ths of a point worse, either.”

“Winning an individual title feels great,” Van Leer said. “The all-around title is what I’m going for next year. I think it’s just that I’ve had a lot of reps with that vault over the last two years and it’s starting to become muscle memory for me.

“It was a fairly easy choice for me this year (to compete against the best high school gymnasts). I wanted to finish with a lot of the seniors who aren’t going to be here next year. It was my last opportunity to compete with them. The high school experience is so much more rewarding than the club experience, too. Here I can look past mistakes when I make them and just focus on the team score and how well we’re doing. And there’s an atmosphere of support from the others that makes it a lot of fun.”

Van Leer actually had to water down his vault routine because the judging at the high school level only rewards vaults to a certain degree, according to Erwin.

“He added a full twist to his roundoff full twist, but the high school rules don’t give you credit for it. So he just went back to the single twist because it’s more consistent,” said the coach.

The Wildkits weren’t a one-man show Saturday --- or really, at any point this season. Evanston got major contributions from senior Mo Frischer, sophomore Jacob Potter and senior Xavier Probst. Probst accounted for Evanston’s best individual placing besides Van Leer, as he tied for 3rd on floor exercise with a score of 9.35, same as Louie Diab of Glenbard West.

Frischer not only earned 15th place all-around at 47.80, he shared a scholarship award with a gymnast from Maine East that is presented in honor of former Evanston coach John Brinkworth. The criteria for that award says the gymnast “must have an exceptional work ethic in the gym and in school, must possess personal character traits of honesty, sincerity and dedication to the sport, and must have displayed courage and perseverance in their gymnastics and/or personal life.”

Frischer checked all of those boxes --- and had to persevere through an injury that left his own availability in question and posed a risk for Evanston’s team chances for a state trophy, too.

Frischer hyperextended both of his knees in practice this week and didn’t know if they would hold up Saturday, especially on vault and floor exercise. And Erwin was reluctant to keep him in the all-around lineup, even though the veteran coach knew it would hurt his team in the standings.

“Mo was fantastic for us today,” Erwin praised. “I was really, really concerned when he got hurt. I thought we’d be lucky to be in the top 5 without his all-around score. I told him we needed to seriously think about scratching him in vault and floor exercise because we really, really needed him on the other events. Vault was our first event (in the rotation) and I knew if he hurt it again, we were toast.

“But he said he felt good and he wanted to do it. When Mo puts his mind to something, he can get it done.”

“I was really anxious in the vault at the beginning today,” Frischer confessed. “I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t come out of it with two broken legs. But it meant a lot to me to stay in there and compete. I ended up having a really good meet, one of my best meets ever.

“As far as winning that award, we’ve established a good community at ETHS --- and I guess I’ve played a role in that. It’s been more of a family than a team. I know that’s a cliché but it’s true. This was a very impactful day for me, and this is a good way to end it.”

Frischer’s fall on pommel horse put the Kits in a hole point wise, but he rallied in the next event --- rings --- for what Erwin called “the best routine he’s ever hit. It takes a special person like Mo to recover from that disaster he had on horse.”

Frischer recorded a score of 8.25 on horse, good for 11th place overall in that event.

Also earning medals for top 10 individual finishes for ETHS were Probst on vault (8th at 9.05, Frischer on vault (tie 9th at 8.95), and Potter on pommel horse (10th at 8.5).