L-Way takes second

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BARRINGTON -- Lincoln-Way's gymnastics team had high hopes that it could capture its second state championship in the past three years.

But a talented York squad had other ideas as it defeated Lincoln-Way 163.7-161.1 for the title in the state finals.

Coach Skip Adamson's program also took second place in 2005 so it has now captured state trophies in three of the last four years.

The biggest difference in the meet came in the pommel horse, where they Dukes posted a 27.6 compared to Lincoln-Way's 24.8, the third-best total.

Lincoln-Way had the day's best score on the horizontal bar (27.2) and the parallel bars (26.75) and tied York for the best mark on vault (28.0).

Its score on the still rings (26.7) was only .1 point shy of Lake Park's top mark and the floor exercise total (28.15) was just .2 worse than York's score.

"I know the kids don't like to hear it, but York beat us," Adamson said. "I thought we could take them but they had a little better team than we did today.

"Second place isn't as bad as they make it out to be because you have to win first and we placed second."

Senior Dan Hutton led Lincoln-Way in scoring in all of the routines except still rings. He had the day's best totals on the parallel bars (9.6) and tied for the best mark on vault (9.55).

He also had the second-best mark on the horizontal bar (9.6), tied for the second-best score on floor exercise (9.55), had the fourth-best mark on the pommel horse (9.1) and scored an 8.85 on still rings.

"We did as well as we could but they ended up beating us and they deserved it," said Hutton, who was a member of the 2006 title team. "A lot of our kids have come a long way since we won the title."

Freshman Isaac Kruspe led Lincoln-Way on still rings and tied for the fourth-best mark (9.3). He tied for the fifth-best score in floor exercise (9.45) and scored 9.3 on vault and 8.75 on the horizontal bar.

Sophomore Ryan Mars posted scores of 9.15 on both floor exercise and vault, had an 8.85 on the horizontal bar and turned in a 7.65 on pommel horse.

"York just hit their routines more than we did," Mars said. "This was Isaac's first year at state and I'm sure he was nervous and even though I was here last year, it still was nerve-racking."

Senior Phil Guinid, who also was on the 2006 championship team, had an 8.55 on still rings, an 8.45 on parallel bars and an 8.05 on pommel horse while junior Kyle Staley posted an 8.7 on parallel bars.

"We probably could have had a chance against them but they hit and they're a very good team," Guinid said. "It's not too bad to leave the type of legacy that we have here."