Warsaw’s Sydni Purvis takes flight on the floor during competition at the Wawasee Gymnastics Sectional. InkFreeNews photos by Mike Deak

By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE – Angola left little doubt who was elite at the Wawasee Gymnastics Sectional on Saturday. The Hornets ran away with the title with a 108.95, a full five points better than runner-up DeKalb.

The race for third and the final regional advancement would come down to Elkhart and East Noble, and the Lions would best the Knights by .225 to get the ticket to the Huntington North Regional next weekend. DeKalb scored 103.8, Elkhart a 100.875 and East Noble a 100.65.

The meet would signify the end of the road for the three local programs involved. Wawasee bowed out taking sixth at 94.45, Warsaw in eighth at 87.725, and NorthWood’s lone performer, Emilee Conrad, was well back of qualifying in any of the individual categories.

The Warriors and Tigers were unable to get an athlete into the top 10. Wawasee had Talia Kuhl take 13th on vault at 8.725 and Emma Ebright score a 7.825 for 13th on bars. Kuhl would take 14th on floor at 8.375 and 15th on beam at 8.1, and was 15th in all-around at 32.125 to lead the Wawasee scoring.

“I think the team and the program we are building here, I think we have a great foundation,” said Wawasee head coach Molly Liston. “It’s going to happen in the offseason. A lot of the girls from Fort Wayne have clubs right at their fingertips.

“We’ve all talked about how that’s our priority in the offseason is to get these girls together and back in the gym.”

Warsaw had just one score in the top 15, that being a 7.7 by Sydni Purvis on bars. Purvis would also lead the Tigers on vault (8.575), floor (7.675) and all-around (30.525). Brooke Bolinger had a 7.7 to pace the Tigers on the beam.

“Starting on beam kinda sets the tone for how your meet is going to be and that’s where we started,” said Warsaw head coach Tonya Douglass. “That set our tone. You either hit beam or don’t, and we didn’t, we were kinda off there. I did see some things that we’ve worked on all season that we did do well today.”

Conrad’s top placement was 22nd on beam at 7.625 and the Panther sophomore scored a 28.725 in all-around, good for 24th in the meet.

Ashtyn Evans was the performer of the meet, the sectional champion in four of the five categories. The Angola junior led the way on bars (9.6), beam (9.3), tied teammate Audrey Wilkinson on vault (9.45) and ran away with the all-around title at 37.5. Fellow Hornet Emma Schoenherr would tie East Noble’s Audrey Beiswanger on floor with a championship 9.175.

DeKalb’s Sarah Boyd was second in all-around at 35.95 and Schoenherr was third at 35.75.

Also advancing to the Huntington North Regional next weekend are Miah Hudson of East Noble and Brielle Carter of Eastside in all-around and Plymouth’s Tessa Hutchinson on beam.