Opening success

The Patriots got what they wanted out of their opening meet of the season.

For the newcomers, it was a first taste of competition.

Meanwhile, the veterans showed their potential, particularly on the floor exercise.

The overall result was never in doubt Thursday as the Jay County High School gymnastics team, which was short one competitor on the uneven bars, easily scored an 82.55-37.6 victory over the short-handed Lincoln Golden Eagles.

The individual results were the same regardless of the event, with Halle Hill sweeping the meet for Jay County and Kenzie Ring finishing second. Hannah Holiday of Lincoln, which had just two gymnasts, was third across the board.

Top scoring efforts from both Hill, who won the all-around competition with a score of 33.875, and Ring came on the final event of the evening.

Both closed their opening and closing tumbling passes on the floor exercise with full twists.

“I was really excited about Kenzie throwing her full at the end of her floor routine,” said JCHS coach Jill Ranly. “She’s never done that. I wasn’t real sure if she was going to do it. So that was pretty exciting. … That’s tough for a gymnast to have the energy to throw a full at the end of a routine.

“And Halle had her full at the end, too. Both of those girls did everything they needed to on floor.”

Hill, who missed the bulk of the 2019 season because of an ankle injury, is working her way back to being able to throw a double full on the floor. Even without that skill, she won the event with a 9.1 Thursday.

Ring was the runner-up with an 8.9.

“I thought Kenzie’s floor routine, for being a new floor routine, getting an 8.9 is really good for her,” said Ranly, noting that Ring’s career-high on the event is a 9.175.

Hill and Ring performed the same vault — a half-on, full-off — to take the top two spots. The former led the way with an 8.6, and the latter finished at 8.45.

It was the vault that proved most surprising for newcomers Kaley Young and Cassidy Upp, who showed huge improvements even from Monday’s practice. Young scored a 7.3 and Upp finished with a 6.75.

“I was really happy with the vault. The girls have worked hard on those vaults,” said Ranly, noting that her goal was for each of the gymnastics rookies — exchange student Misaal Fatimah, Young and Upp — to score 5.0 or higher on any event. “They did a really nice job on vault. Their vault scores I was really impressed with.”

Hill was far and away the top performer on the balance beam, despite a fall on her back handspring.

She bounced back to nail her back tuck and then executed her dismount — a back walkover into backflip with a full twist — to finish off an 8.375 effort.

“And the tuck was solid,” said Ranly. “All of her skills are really very solid. Halle’s routines are so polished. She’s just been doing it for so long.”

Ring followed with a 7.9 for the runner-up spot, and Fatimah scored for the Patriots with a 4.05. Fatimah also posted the No. 3 score for JCHS on the floor with a 5.275.

Hill and Ring were separated by just a tenth of a point on the uneven parallel bars, with Hill’s winning score coming in at 7.8.