Wawasee’s Reagan Atwood levitates above the floor during her 9.7 routine – a career high – Tuesday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – Tuesday night was another chance for a pair of young teams to get their feet wet and their skills refined. The gymnastics dual between Wawasee and Warsaw saw the slightly shorthanded Lady Warriors score a 103.075-97.975 victory.

As the unofficial halftime marker quickly approaches, that being the Lakeland Invite on Feb. 4, both teams wanted Tuesday to be a competitive opportunity to refine some new twists to routines and get some of its younger roster members chances to perform in front of crowds.

Without the services of sophomore Alyssa Minnix, out on a concussion protocol, Wawasee sent out two seniors and a junior to salve the vacancy. The age was greater than the experience as Haleigh Smarr and Autumn Yoder – the seniors – have done spot duty on varsity but competed in two events each while junior Meghan Beer went all-around Tuesday night. Smarr had the highest placing of the group, a 7.6 for fourth place on bars, but the stepping up kept Wawasee moving.

Providing the big guns for the Lady Warriors were the junior-sophomore-freshman trio of Reagan Atwood, Jada Parzygnot and Aundreya Wegener. The three swept the top spots on floor, led by Atwood’s sizzling 9.7 in a rarefied air score for the program. The other two both eclipsed the nines, with Parzygnot posting a 9.2 and Wegener at 9.05.

Atwood hung another top score on the wall, her 9.38 on beam the only competitor to rise above a nine. The junior was also second on bars at 8.3 and vault at 8.55, which Parzygnot matched the vault score and had the top bars routine at 8.45.

Daylen Turner of Warsaw reacts after her vault.

“We can normally get into the eights on everything, but if we want to compete at the end of the season, we need to get into the nines,” said Wawasee head coach Nika Prather. “Our scores on vault weren’t great, but we can clean that up and get some extra cushioning. But for us, beam is what is going to make or break us. To have just the one score from Reagan, that is something we need to become much more consistent (on the beam).”

Warsaw’s Remi Beckham, a sophomore, paced her club with a top score on vault at 8.6, splitting the difference on her two vaults. Beckham was second on beam at 8.65, third on bars at 7.78 and fourth on floor at 9.03, leading Warsaw in all four categories.

Warsaw would push on the beam, with freshman Daylen Turner third at 8.45 and sophomore Anna Wainscott fourth at 8.35. Turner was fourth on vault at 8.4.

The young Tigers, who return just Beckham and Wainscott from its sectional roster from last year, added freshman Megan Metzger’s totals to what was its highest team output to date.

“I feel like we have a pretty level playing field from what we’ve seen so far,” said Warsaw coach Tonya Douglass. “We placed third at the Plymouth Invite that had most of the sectional teams there, and were just three-tenths behind DeKalb. If we can manage to stay on the beam and bring some of our ‘A’ game, we can be a top-four or top-five team at sectionals. Tonight was another step towards that.”

Wawasee will have another key sectional team in its house Thursday when Lakeland visits, and Prather is hoping to see more triple digits.

“Last year we started hitting 100 consistently, but I can’t get too comfortable with that knowing it only takes one bad day,” joked Prather. “Honestly, if we can stay near a 105 average, I would be much happier. Missing Alyssa Minnix surely takes away a point or two, but when you have teams like Elkhart Central, DeKalb and East Noble coming into the sectional, we have to find ways to gain points, not give them away.”

Warsaw will host Marion next Wednesday.

“I saw a lot of good things from our girls tonight,” Douglass said. “We had some silly mistakes and we did some good things as well. I feel pretty good about where we are at.”