Bullard just shy of regional berth

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FORT WAYNE — The Patriots were stuck in ninth place each of the last two years.

Karlie Bullard was lost near the back of the field on floor exercise.

What a difference a year makes.

Bullard narrowly missed qualifying for regional as the Jay County High School gymnastics team had its season come to an end in the IHSAA Gymnastics Sectional on Saturday at Concordia Lutheran.

“I’m super excited with how today went,” said JCHS coach Jill Ranly, whose team scored 99.175 points to finish seventh out of 13 scoring teams. “The girls worked hard as a team, not just for high individual scores which happens to fall in place when you’re working together.”

Carroll scored 111.175 points to win the sectional title, knocking off two-time defending champion Bishop Dwenger, which was second with 110.65 points. Homestead totaled 107.875 for third.

The top three teams and top six individuals in each event advance to regional March 3 at Huntington North.

Bullard, a junior, scored a 9.275 on floor to finish eighth, the best individual place for any Patriot.

“I never thought I would place eighth here,” she said. “It’s just crazy to me.”

And she didn’t hesitate when asked if she wanted to know just how close she was to that No. 6 spot.

Huntington North senior Danielle Korporal scored 9.35 for the final qualifying position.

Bullard let out a big sigh when she found out.

“It makes me feel really good because those girls that are getting those scores are amazing,” she said. “To be that close to that score I am beyond proud of myself no matter if I move on or not because that’s a really good score for here.

“It’s a huge improvement from last year.”

In fact, it’s almost a full point higher than her sophomore season, during which she scored an 8.35 and placed 30th.

At the start of this year she had a full twist in one of her tumbling passes. But as the season went on she pushed it to a one-and-one-half twist, and she executed it on Saturday to help boost her score.

“Karlie has worked really hard to get the one-and-one-half on floor,” Ranly said. “A lot of the jumps she did last year just weren’t quite there so she didn’t get credit for them. Today she did.”

Bullard scored 8.6 on vault to tie for 24th, earned 8.175 on uneven bars for 16th and totaled 8.150 on balance beam despite a fall and tied for 19th place. Her all-around score of 34.2 was 15th.

Kenzie Ring made her sectional debut and turned in one of two no-fall routines for the Patriots on the balance beam. She executed both of her back walkovers on her way to an 8.325, which was 13th. The freshman scored 8.05 on bars (18th), had 8.65 on vault (tied for 21st) and had an 8.525 on floor even though she stepped outside the boundary line on one of her tumbling passes. She finished 21st on floor and her all-around score of 33.55 was 18th, the second-highest finish among the three freshman with all-around totals.

Sophomore Paige Howell set new career best scores on floor (8.745) and vault (8.45), which were 23rd and 29th respectively. She also finished 32nd on beam with a 7.275.

“Paige did amazing today,” Ranly said.

Riley Leavell, another JCHS junior, competed in three of the four events. Her best score, 8.35, was on vault and placed 31st. She had a no-fall beam routine that scored 7.35 for 30th and she totaled 7.125 on bars for 25th.

Rachel Louck and Randi Ferguson took part in one event apiece. Ferguson earned 8.15 on floor to place 28th, and Louck was 26th on bars with 6.925.

“Couple falls on beam, but they hit their connections so it actually ended up being better scores than what we had (at New Castle) Wednesday,” Ranly said. “Vault scores improved drastically. They’ve been working really hard. Had some trouble on bars today, just some connections that didn’t work out.

“Overall our floor scores were amazing. They put their heart and soul into it. They did a really good job.”

Bullard said despite the team finishing seventh she was pleased with how her squad performed as a whole.

“We know our sectional is really hard,” she said. “We know there are a lot of girls. We just came in here saying we’re not going to hold back, throw everything we have.

“Give it all out there to get the best team score possible.”

For a team without seniors, finishing seventh after being ninth in back-to-back years gives hope for the next season.

“What we need to work on is constancy on beam, which we’ve been increasing a lot,” Bullard said. “Just floor and vault, we need a lot more difficulty on vault.”