April 05, 2025
Sports

High school boys gymnastics: Wheaton books ninth straight state berth

By BILL STONE

Wheaton co-op junior Joey DiRienzo performs on parallel bars May 4 during the Glenbard West boys gymnastics sectional. DiRienzo made state on bars and pommel horse and Wheaton booked its ninth straight trip to state. (David Toney)

GLEN ELLYN – During last year’s boys gymnastics season, Wheaton co-op junior Joey DiRienzo was poised to join another state-qualifying lineup.

Shortly after spring break, DiRienzo came off the high bar at practice and his foot hit the mat sideways. Three broken bones ended his chances.

“It was going well – up until the accident,” DiRienzo said.

On May 4, DiRienzo competed at his first sectional. Now he’s going to his first state meet, and happily has his teammates with him.

DiRienzo contributed to a strong finish on pommel horse that lifted Wheaton co-op to a third-place 151.25 at the Glenbard West sectional and its ninth consecutive berth to the eight-team state meet at Hinsdale Central on May 12 and 13.

“It’s awesome just having the opportunity to be able to do [state] in high school,” DiRienzo said. “I’ve been wanting to do high school gymnastics since I was a little kid so it’s kind of neat to actually be doing it.”

Senior Austin Tate’s lifetime best 9.3 on pommel horse won sectionals. The four-year state competitor also reached the May 13 individual part of the state meet in all-around, parallel bars and high bar.

Other individual qualifiers were DiRienzo (horse, parallel bars), seniors Andy Mathieu (horse) and Trent Hartman (vault), juniors Aiden Moran (floor exercise, still rings, vault) and Jeffrey Huecias (horse) and sophomore Chris Wiper (parallel bars). Senior Nathan Pleitt, juniors Brent Kelpsas and Kevin Riley, sophomore Andres Noguera and freshman Chris Franz also competed.

“I just really like this team. They work really hard. They’re not necessarily the flashiest, but they rally around each other,” Wheaton co-op coach Greg Gebhardt said. “Usually we’re kind of built around a couple of really strong contributors, but this year it’s freshmen literally up to seniors.”

Wheaton earned the last at-large team state spot over Mundelein behind season highs on horse (26.65), where Tate and DiRienzo (8.9) finished 1-2, and vault (25.70).

“We stumbled around for the first couple of events, but we really got our act together as the meet progressed,” Tate said. “Horse is one of our strongest events. We were very glad to end with it. I really like swinging horse.”

Tate overcame additional adversity. Judges needed additional time scoring the preceding routine.

“For Austin to come through after waiting five, six minutes, it’s pretty phenomenal. He’s been rock-solid all year,” Gebhardt said. “That was amazing, a [season best] on an event when they had to.”