The Elkhart Central gymnastics team claimed the Wawasee Gymnastics Sectional trophy as the top team Saturday, its fourth title in program history. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – It’s been a long and winding road for Elkhart Central to get back on the winner’s podium at the sectional level. Saturday’s championship at the Wawasee Gymnastics Sectional, where the Blue Blazers outdid the field with its 103.75 total, was a very gratifying one for head coach Kathy Krauter and her elated team.

“I’m absolutely exhausted,” Krauter said as Wawasee head coach Nika Prather came over to congratulate her. Regaining her train of thought, offered, “I’m just so very happy for our two seniors, Libby Yeakey and Libby Tulley. They have not won one of these. We’ve had a lot of second and third places during their tenure. This is their first sectional championship, so I am just really happy for them.”

Central led everyone in total vault and beam scores, posting a 26.15 on vault and 27.575 on beam, which the beam figure was over two points better than DeKalb, which was runner-up in the team standings. Highlighting the day for Elkhart was a one-two finish on beam from cousins Kiara Stabler (9.35) and Alena Stabler (9.325). Kiara would place third overall in all-around scores with a 35.55 while Alena was seventh at 33.725. Teammate Skiler Reveal was sixth in all-around at 33.75.

The title for Central is the fourth overall for the program, and the first since 2011. DeKalb was second at 101.825 and East Noble third at 100.90, all three claiming automatic team tickets to the Huntington North Regional Friday evening.

It was a bittersweet day for both Wawasee and Warsaw.

The Lady Warriors finished fourth in the team tally with a 98.375, the second-highest point total from the team this season. Starting the day with a surprisingly hot start on bars – historically one of Wawasee’s weakest events – the Lady Warriors posted the third-best score of the day at 24.05. But a sixth-place finish on beam, followed by fifth-place scores on floor and vault kept Wawasee off the pace just enough for East Noble to slip by.

Agonizing as it was, now since 2009 the Lady Warriors have been in a team regional and since 2004 when Wawasee last hoisted a sectional champions trophy. But not all was lost, as freshman Reagan Atwood will move on as an all-around performer. Atwood was the sectional champion on floor at 9.3 and was second overall in all-around at 35.875, only short of Plymouth’s Cassi Quissell, who was the clear-cut top gymnast at 36.425.

Atwood finished third on beam at 9.2, tied for third with Lakeland’s Sam Gieseking on vault at 8.85, and was fourth on bars at 8.525. Not too shabby for someone in her first sectional who just a week ago was laying on the floor between events against Plymouth with an ice pack draped over her back.

“I know Reagan felt a lot of pressure to perform well,” Prather said. “She is so competitive and focused. She is constantly thinking, and pretty serious about competing. She is intense, and really wanted to do well today. I couldn’t be more proud of how she did today.”

Wawasee senior Taylor Busse was the only other gymnast within the top 10 of any event, and painfully, was seventh and out of the advancers on her signature bars event. Busse’s 8.0 was two-tenths shy of Alena Stabler’s 8.2, sixth-place score and outside of the automatic qualifiers.

The local bars qualifier, ironically, was Warsaw’s Jazzmine Brown. Admitting bars wasn’t her forte, the senior still managed an 8.375 for fifth place and a ticket to Huntington. Where Brown thought she could make moves, on vault and floor, she finished tied for eighth (8.65) and 14th (8.15).

“I’m excited it’s not over,” Brown said. “My bars routine was different, I’ve been doing giants all year but we took them out and I did a little bit of an easier routine so I could score higher. We were hoping for all-around, but getting bars is OK with me.”

Brown finished just outside the top six in all-around, scoring 33.55, two-tenths off Reveal’s sixth-place tally.

Warsaw only had two other athletes working at the sectional, with Katie Richard 20th in all-around (27.9) and Nadiya Burritt only competing bars (7.3, 35th).

Quissell won the title on the vault at 9.2 and DeKalb’s Kristin Russell was the bars champion at 9.4. Gieseking and Caitlin Marlow of DeKalb were the other two to earn all-around top-six scores.