Wawasee’s Jada Parzygnot performs Thursday night against Huntington North. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – It was a homecoming and a send-off all in one Thursday night.

In just its second home meet of the season, Wawasee held its senior night during its final regular season home date, and made it count in a 99.975-93.5 victory.

With its only other home meet coming Jan. 15, since then Wawasee has had three cancellations, along with a roadie at East Noble called off, it’s been tough to gain much momentum or consistency on the equipment. Toss in Wawasee moving into the old Sycause Elementary School building for the season as the high school annex is getting a facelift, and it’s been trying, to say the least, for Nika Prather’s club.

“The seniors, you would think they would be more accustomed to the experience, they’ve been here and done that,” Prather said. “The freshmen, they don’t know any different. The girls are still getting used to this facility, the perspective is a little different where you face. In meets, we haven’t done it enough because we’ve only had one. I’m sure that played a little part of it tonight. It just seems confidence is a little shaky right now. I don’t know exactly why.”

Prather put some of the excuses aside, though, as the Wawasee Sectional is fast-approaching, and there isn’t much time to think about what could have been. Having bounced around in the 100-point level, Wawasee fell short of the mark on its own equipment on a night it had hoped to shine. A 34.33 all-around score from Jada Parzygnot won the meet, and her 9.3 on floor left the senior less than impressed, and Prather equally baffled. Falls on bars and a very flat vault series to open – an uncharacteristic 8.3 from Parzygnot and 8.25 from fellow senior Alyssa Minnix – left plenty of questions.

“Alyssa worries sometimes that she is going to miss rather than thinking she can make it,” stated Prather. “We just want her to think more positively that she can nail this stuff. She can do it, we’ve seen her do it. We’re going to try some harder vaults, and hopefully by the Plymouth meet, we will have those harder vaults down.”

Prather did cite moments of good, noting Minnix’s bars routine was a bright spot, scoring an 8.13 for first where Wawasee took all three of the top spots. Aundreya Wegener’s 9.05 on beam was a no-fall routine that had her connect some higher-level skills, and Minnix, who was visibly perturbed during her floor warm-up in not landing a tumbling pass, would come back and hit the pass during her live performance, scoring an 8.6 to go with Wegener’s 9.05 to give Wawasee three of the top four spots in the event.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was something given Wawasee has only had two meets since the West Noble matchup a month ago.

“We really don’t have any choice but to keep plugging away and try to perfect what we can,” Prather said.

Huntington North had Alea Eckert lead the way on vault at 9.1 and place third on beam at 8.28. Her 8.9 on floor and 6.23 on bars complied to a 32.5, which was third in the all-around scoring. Corynn Barton chipped in an 8.35 on vault for second place.

Wawasee will visit Plymouth Tuesday for its final regular season meet before hosting the sectional Feb. 23 at the elementary school.

Alyssa Minnix works through her beam routine Thursday night.