L-Way gymnasts on another huge roll

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Competing in three invitationals during one week is about as brutal a schedule as any gymnastics team likely will see.

But if the intense strain of being in so many events in six days pays off in a big way at the end of the season, it will turn out to be worth it.

And that's just what Lincoln-Way High School's co-op boys gymnastics team is hoping will be he case as it focuses in on challenging for the state title.

Coach Skip Adamson's squad is one of the favorites to claim top honors after it posted a 161.27 at last Saturday's Dave Donaldson Invite at Wheaton North.

Lincoln-Way, which won the state championship in 2006 and placed second a year earlier, is looking for its sixth top-five showing in seven years.

"The guys were tired," Adamson said after his squad defeated host Wheaton co-op by 8.92 points for the title of Saturday's 12-team invitational.

"We had five meets in six days, which is a ridiculous amount of time. So we beat them up physically so that they'll be ready for the end of the year.

"We're doing better than I expected in a lot of ways, maybe not performance-wise, but score-wise. They're taking their lumps, but we'll be all right."

The team opened the week up on Monday by winning the title at Hinsdale South and it also claimed top honors in an invite at Conant on Friday.

After getting three more invite titles, Lincoln-Way has captured six this year, joining wins at Mundelein, Hinsdale Central and Homewood-Flossmoor.

Beside winning the team title at Wheaton North, Dan Hutton and Isaak Kruspie also captured four of the six championships in the individual events.

Senior Hutton took top honors in parallel bars (9.55), horizontal bar (9.4) and floor exercise (9.6) while freshman Kruspie won the title on still rings (9.4).

In addition, Hutton was second on pommel horse (9.1) and third on vault (9.3) and Kruspie was third on floor (9.5) and fourth on vault (9.25) and high bar (8.8).

Hutton shared state titles with former teammate Brian Hulbert in parallel bars and high bar in 2006 and was second in high bar and third in the all-around last year.

"This was a decent day," Hutton said. "We had a meet yesterday so we were a little fatigued. So it was a little hard, but we gutted through it and did what we had to.

"Basically this was a good meet for me. Our team has more depth than we've had the last two years, so you don't have as much pressure on you when you compete."

Also for Lincoln-Way at the Wheaton North Invitational, Ryan Mars finished third on high bar (8.9), fifth on floor (9.15) and 10th on parallel bars (8.65). Phil Guinid took third on parallel bars (9.3). Kyle Staley placed eighth on parallel bars (8.7) and 10th on high bar (8.35). Jeff Trost was 10th on rings (8.75).