Patriots top Marion

MARION — Katie Snyder stood underneath the uneven bars Thursday, awaiting her turn.
It had been nearly 11 months since she last competed, when a fall from the bars at Connersville left her with a broken arm.
Snyder said she was nervous, but once she performed her first kip “it was just another bar routine.”
It was a winning bar routine, and the Jay County High School junior went on to pick up victories on each of the other events as the Patriot gymnastics team scored a 94.7 in its opening meet of the season.
The host Marion Giants did not have enough gymnasts to post a team score.
“I’m glad the first meet’s over,” said JCHS coach Lora Schlosser, who had previously said she hoped her team could open with a score around the 98 mark. “Hopefully we got all of our shakiness and all of our falls on beam out of the way the first meet.”
Although she did not perform the handstand that resulted her fall at Connersville, Snyder put together a solid bars routine to win the opening event with a score of 8.2.
She said even after that success she felt nervous heading into the vault competition, in which she was competing a Yurchenko for the first time. But she stuck the landing on her first attempt, and hit the second with just a small step to gain her balance.
Snyder scored a 9.0 on the Yurchenko, a round-off onto the springboard followed by a back handspring onto the vaulting table and then a somersault, to win the event by three tenths of a point.
“I was freaking out about vault,” said Snyder. “I don’t know why. I never do.
“(In warm-ups) I had wiped out, bad … but I was pretty glad I went.
“It was good. It was a lot better than what I had done in practice.”
Jay County put up by far its best team score on the vault, tallying 26.4 points with sophomore Tasya Smith and freshman Malarie Houck tying for second place behind Snyder at 8.7.
Cortney Myers and Olivia Cash also scored well at 8.6 and 8.2 respectively, but Schlosser said she thinks her team can be even better.
“Vault, we did OK, but we’ve got room to grow,” she said. “For the first time, (Snyder was) not too bad. She’s got a lot of clean-up to do, so there’s a lot of room for growth in that score.
“When she hits the handstand part of the vault, she’s really bent … That will get cleaned up and give her more height, more time to tuck, and eventually pike.
“I’m looking forward to seeing her improve on that.”
Marion, which had just two gymnasts, claimed second place on each of the other three events. Emily Murphy was the runner-up on both the floor exercise (7.8) and balance beam (7.75), and Kayla Renshaw took second on the bars with a 7.7.The Patriots took first and third places on every event, with Snyder posting winning scores of 8.35 on the floor exercise and 8.15 on the balance beam.
In addition to her runner-up vault finish, Smith took third on a pair of events with scores of 7.65 on the bars and a 7.2 on the beam.
“She just needs to clean up,” said Schlosser. “Her skills are there. She has the potential.”
Houck also added a third-place finish after tying with Smith on the vault, turning in a score of 7.6 on the floor in her first gymnastics competition in four years. She also showed her potential on the balance beam, hitting a back handspring and scoring a 6.9 despite falling three times. (Each fall is an automatic half-point deduction.)
“She’s just got to put it together and work out the jitters,” Schlosser said. “She’s got a pretty powerful beam routine. She’s not doing a standing back tuck, but her jumps are all harder than what (Snyder is) doing. She’s got some hard skills … She just needs to stay on there and she’ll score well.”
Alexis Murrell picked up first place junior varsity awards on the vault (7.8), floor (6.45) and beam (5.95).
Jay County will be back in competition Saturday at Richmond, and then visit Carroll for a dual meet Monday.[[In-content Ad]]