JCHS blasts Rebels

The Patriots picked up a dominant victory Thursday on a night when it wasn’t especially easy to stay focused.
The meet between the Jay County High School gymnastics team and the Muncie Southside Rebels was halted early on when Felicity Davis of Southside suffered a broken right leg. JCHS went on to take the top three spots in every event, but had one of its lowest scores of the season in a 98.075-71.225 win.
“We had some rough spots,” said Jay County coach Lora Schlosser, whose team was without foreign exchange student Nikita Gundersen and only used senior Melynda Brackman (ankle injury) on the uneven bars. “I think the injury early on kind of got in everyone’s head. The enthusiasm wasn’t here.”
Davis suffered her injury when she landed awkwardly after her straddle over the vault. She jammed her right leg into the mat, breaking her right leg just above the ankle.
The injury was fairly severe, and the meet was halted for about 20 minutes as she was tended to before being transported to the hospital via ambulance.
Sophomore Katie Snyder responded well after the break in the action, following up her vault victory with three more wins to sweep the meet.
Snyder’s best score came on the vault, where her Tsukahara earned her a 9.3, and she added an 8.4 with a smooth routine on the bars. She had a fall early on the balance beam, but came back to hit both of her back tucks to score an 8.125.
And on the floor exercise, the work of the past week showed up as she posted a 9.025.
“Katie’s floor I think is one of the strongest we’ve seen this season,” said Schlosser of Snyder, who also won the all-around competition with 34.8 points. “She picked up some difficulty.”
Kristen Ainsworth, who finished second for the Patriots on three out of four events, followed Snyder with an 8.2 on the floor exercise. Tasya Smith added a 7.875.
Schlosser said she was happy with the event overall because of the changes the team has made over the past week.
“Watching some of the girls on floor, the scores, other than Katie’s, may not have been quite where we want them, but when you look at the judges’ sheets we’ve really upgraded our difficulty,” she said. “Girls are picking up an extra three to five tenths in difficulty that they’ve never had. Now it’s just going to be executing it better and hopefully we’ll see our scores go up.”
In addition to her runner-up effort on the floor, Ainsworth was second with a 7.9 on the bars and a 7.625 on the beam. She was third on the vault with an 8.6.
“She’s been sick since last Saturday, hadn’t been to school for three days,” said Schlosser of the strong effort. “I think she did well (under the circumstances).”
Smith picked up the other second-place effort for the Patriots with an 8.7 on the vault. She was third on each of the other three events with a 7.875 on the floor, 7.275 on the bars and 7.05 on the beam.
Top scores from Southside on each event Thursday came from Allison Dick (7.85 – vault, 6.65 – floor), Lacey Whitted (7.85 – vault, 6.0 – bars) and Brianna Wolfe (6.45 – beam).[[In-content Ad]]