Patriots clinch sectional championship

Editor’s note: With a void in sports, The Commercial Review will occasionally run past stories from key events in the area’s athletic history. This story, from March 6, 2000, recaps the Jay County High School gymnastics team’s sectional championship, the third in program history.

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MUNCIE — It’s been a long wait, but the Jay County High School gymnastics team is once again sectional champion.

After finishing second to Marion the previous two years, the Patriots were able to beat the Giants 104.35-99.8 at the Muncie Central sectional on Saturday to clinch their first title since 1987.

“It’s something the girls have been close to for a couple of years,” JCHS coach Charlotte Glogas said. “To finally win this feels really nice.”

Danae Klatt, Dawn Ogden and Emily Zielinski all won individual events to lead Jay County to victory. The Patriots will now compete at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Marion regional. The top two team finishers and top six individual scorers advance to state.

Ogden won the bars with a 9.35 which helped her to a second place finish in the all-around. Ogden tied with Huntington North’s Shera Shaw in the all-around with 35.95. However, in the postseason ties are broken by using the superior judge’s score on each event and scores are totaled. Shaw won 36.0 to Ogden’s 35.75.

Ogden was one of three Patriots to finish in the top six in the all-around. Klatt was second with a 34.8, while Kristi Antrim was sixth with a 32.3.

One of the biggest surprises was Zielinski’s win on the beam. It was just her third meet since coming back from an ankle injury. Nobody would have known she was ever injured after posting a 9.25.

“She had a beautiful beam routine,” Glogas said. “Mentally, this has to be a big boost for Emily. She’s had a tough season fighting through injuries. This is a nice thing to have happen at the end of the season. Some of the other (sectional competitors) looked shaky. Emily got up there and you’d think she was still on the floor.”

Klatt won the vault with an 8.95 and had a third place finish in the floor, a fourth place on the beam and a fifth place on the bars. Glogas said she thinks Klatt can qualify for state.

“She had two really nice vaults,” she said. “I think she stands a really good chance on vault. She’s been surprising me all year with big performance sin the big meets.”

Ogden also finished second on the floor, second in the vault and fifth on the beam. Her scores were a little lower than usual, but Glogas said that usually happens in the postseason.

“They’re probably disappointed in some of the scores,” she said. “To me, it doesn’t make much difference. I’m pleased with everything. It was right where it was supposed to be.”

The Patriots best event may have been the floor where they had the second, third, fourth and fifth place finisher. They took three spots on the vault and beam and two on the bars. Haley Brandt finished fifth on the floor and sixth on the vault while Antrim was fourth on the floor.

With only two of the six teams advancing to state, the Patriots are in for a difficult task on Saturday. Marion and Huntington North, which was third with a 99.8, will be joined by Homestead, Bishop Dwenger and Fort Wayne Snider. Dwenger won the sectional with 108.9 points while Homestead was second with 108.024.

“I’m not saying its an impossibility, but we’ve got to hit on everything,” Glogas said. “This wasn’t the best day we’ve had. We didn’t put everything together. We had a lot of wobbles on beam and we have to clean those up. We’re still taking some big steps on our bar dismounts. We have to clean up those little things that add up.”

(Jay County went on to place third with 104.4 points. Bishop Dwenger was first with 108.025 and Homestead scored 106.15 for second).

Final team standings: 1. Jay County, 104.35; 2. Marion, 99.8; 3. Huntington North, 93.1; 4. Muncie Central, 92.4; 5. Delta, 82.4; 6. Muncie Southside, 77.6; 7. Heritage, 72.8; 8. Bluffton 72.7; 9. Blackford, 70.5.