Jay tops HN

The Patriots were not at their best. But they still established themselves as favorites to win the sectional title.
The Jay County High School gymnastics team got event victories from three different athletes Tuesday as it picked up a 100.7-98.7 victory at home over the defending sectional champion Huntington North Vikings.
“We squeaked by with a win,” said JCHS coach Lora Schlosser. “It wasn’t the best performance for the girls by any means. … We took some falls on bars. Beam was kind of shaky. … At least we squeaked by with 100.
“Not performing at their best and still breaking 100, still beating our sectional rival, that’s a good thing.”
Jay County’s last sectional championship came in 2008. The Patriots have been runners-up each of the last four seasons.
“It was good,” said sophomore Malarie Houck of pulling out the victory. “It definitely gives us confidence going into sectional.”
While JCHS struggled on the uneven bars and balance beam, it started the evening off with a strong performance on the vault.
Tasya Smith hit her half-on, full-off for the first time to post a career-high score of 8.925 for second place. Katie Snyder scored a 9.4 on her Yurchenko to earn the win, and Houck added an 8.7.
The Patriots scored 27.025 points on the vault, which was 1.2 more points than on any other event.
“They went not great in warm-ups, but we figured we’d just try it out and see. Ultimately I broke my personal best,” said Smith of her vault. “It was pretty much just determination. I was just wanting to win this meet, and I knew I had to hit the vault.”
Smith also finished first with an 8.275 on the bars while Snyder won the balance beam with an 8.675. Houck made it a clean sweep for the Patriots as she hit her jump connection at the beginning of her floor-exercise routine and her bonus jump at the end to match her career-high score of 8.7 for first place.
“It was a nice, solid floor routine,” said Schlosser. “Overall it was a good performance.”
Snyder was the runner-up on both the floor (8.575) and bars (8.125) as she won the all-around competition with 34.775 points. Smith was third on the floor (8.55) and beam (8.025).
Huntington North got a  second-place finish from Mavin Chaney on the beam (8.375). Hannah Bomba tied Snyder for the runner-up slot on the bars.

Junior varsity
Katie Witt turned in a pair of career-best scores and won two events to lead Jay County.
Witt posted the top score of her career with an 8.55 on the vault. She added a career-best 7.1 to take first place on the balance beam.
Alexis Murrell won the floor exercise for the Patriots with a 7.85.
Mikayla Carpenter of Huntington North finished first on the uneven bars with a 7.275.[[In-content Ad]]