Patriots win

Katie Snyder opened the meet with the best vault of her career.
Tasya Smith added a career-best routine on the balance beam.
It was strong night overall for the Jay County High School gymnastics team, which edged even closer to the century mark as it knocked off the visiting Connersville Spartans 99.725-98.625.
“We’re getting there,” said Snyder. “We’re in the third meet of the season and we’re right at 100. I’m excited.”
“We got a little bit closer,” added JCHS coach Lora Schlosser, whose team was competing at home for the third straight meet to open the season. “Three falls on beam … would have definitely put us into that 100 range.
“I think they did well. I’m looking forward to getting out there in front of other judges … and off our home equipment.”
The Patriots, who will be at home again Jan. 24 before heading to their first road meet Jan. 26 at New Castle, set the tone for the meet early with a strong effort on the vault.
Olivia Cash matched her career-best score with an 8.6, which tied her for third place with teammate Malarie Houck and Connersville’s Sydney Huber. Smith added an 8.7 for second place.
Snyder followed with a strong effort on her first vault, staying tight and getting great height on her Yurchenko in the pike position.
That vault earned her a 9.55, which is the best score of her career by a half-point and left her just 0.25 points short of the school record held by Danae Klatt.
“It was so close,” said Snyder of the record. “I think the biggest thing is it’s so much more clean, especially the back-handspring part. … A lot more height helped too.”
Confident in her first vault, Snyder tried to lay out her Yurchenko on the second attempt. It didn’t quite get there, but it was a step in the right direction toward what she hopes will be a school record and a state medal.
“We just thought we’d throw it to see,” said Schlosser. “Since she nailed such a good first one, we wanted to (go for it).”
Smith turned in the other highlight of the evening with her first no-fall balance beam routine of the season.
The junior connected her back walkovers and later hit her back flip. She was also strong on her tuck three-quarter jump and had just a slight step on her dismount for a career-best 8.225.
“I was very excited,” said Smith. “They’re a really good team and I was so motivated to be able to win. I just wanted to stick on.”
Her previous high score was an 8.0.
“She did not fall. She didn’t even have a whole lot of wobbles,” said Schlosser. “She did a good, solid routine.
“She hit her tumbling connections. She was just solid, and that was good. All her fine-tuning showed tonight.”
In addition to her vault win, Snyder took the floor exercise with a 9.075 and won the all-around competition at 35.25. She was second on both the uneven bars (8.375) and the beam (8.25).
Smith was third on the beam and bars (8.025), and added a score of 8.025 on the floor. Houck posted scores of 8.175 on the floor, 7.5 on the beam and 7.2 on the bars.
Huber took the top spot in both the bars (8.375) and beam (8.3) for Connersville, and finished as the all-around runner-up at 34.025.

Junior varsity
Katie Witt won three out of four events for Jay County as it swept the competition.
Witt’s best score of the night was an 8.1 on the floor, which surpassed her previous career best by eight tenths of a point. Her score would have been good enough to make the top three for the varsity squad.
She also had career-best scores of 6.725 and 5.925 to win the balance beam and bars respectively.
Miranda Hibbard picked up the other win for the Patriots with an 8.4 on the vault.
“I’m really impressed with our JV,” said Schlosser. “On the beam they’ve really worked hard. … I’m really quite surprised at some of their floor scores.”[[In-content Ad]]