ELKHART – Wawasee’s first formal gymnastics dual of the season put the team squarely in step with whom they likely will be chasing in a couple months.

Wawasee and Elkhart Central were the marquee attractions at the Elkhart Central Blazer Gymnastics Invite, and per usual the past couple of years, the two were battling atop the leaderboards. Elkhart maintained its arm’s length distance from Wawasee in a 105.8-102.05 margin for honors at the invite, with Angola third at 99.25.

Elkhart’s big two at the top of their lineup – Analena VanderZwaag and Skiler Reveal – would go onto take the top two spots in all-around. VanderZwaag’s wins on vault, 9.5, and bars, 9.1, helped her to a 35.95 in the all-around, a nice return for the junior who ended her sectional in disappointment in reaggravating a knee injury during vault competition. Reveal was the best on the beam at 9.5 and was just behind her teammate with a 35.75 all-around.

Wawasee’s big two – Reagan Atwood and Jada Parzygnot – would both place in the top six of the all-around. Atwood recovered from a shaky bars routine (8.25) to score 9.2 on floor and post 8.8s on both vault and beam to finish at 35.05 and third place. Parzygnot was second in both bars, 8.4, and beam, 9.1, to score a 34.4 for sixth overall.

The third top-ten all-arounder for the Lady Warriors was Alyssa Minnix, whose 8.4 on bars highlighted her 32.6, ninth-place overall mark.

Angola’s Emily Bracey took the top score on floor with a quality 9.6.

“It was nice to get this first look at these teams, all of them are in our sectional,” stated Wawasee assistant coach Sarah Wegener. “We still have a lot of room for improvement, but a lot of great things happened today.”

Wawasee will prep for its first dual of the season with Angola on Jan. 9.