Carroll tops Jay (01/13/2009)

The Patriots got their chance to compete against some of the best in the state Monday. They held their own.

Jay County lost to the visiting No. 12 Carroll Chargers, led by 2008 state medalist Caitlin Radke, but put up their best score of the young season in the 101.275-97.95 defeat.

"I was really encouraged by our team score tonight because I didn't really feel like everything was better tonight," said JCHS coach Kristin Millspaugh, whose team's score was nearly five points higher than at the same meet last season. "Some things definitely were better ... than at the first home meet, but we had our weaknesses tonight too. Almost a 98, that's very encouraging."

The Patriots showed even more potential as they were victimized by falls on both the uneven bars and the balance beam. Each fall is an automatic half-point deduction, meaning without them JCHS likely would have broken the 100-point barrier.

Even with the falls, junior Nadlie Runyon posted a career-best all-round score of 35.0 as she led Jay County on every event.

Runyon's high score came on the floor exercise with a 9.3, and she added an 8.8 on the beam and an 8.3 on the uneven bars. She was second on all three of those events, and placed third on the vault with an 8.6.

"Nadlie had a very nice floor and was very solid on beam and bars," said Millspaugh. "That's the cleanest bar routine I've ever seen her do, with a brand new dismount. If she didn't miss her dismount on bars tonight, she would have won bars. If she didn't miss her dismount on beam, she would have won beam. It's exciting for me to see. I was anxious to see where she would place compared to Caitlin Radke."

Radke, who finished eighth in the state on the balance beam last season, won all four events for Carroll. Her best score came with a 9.5 on the floor, followed by vault (9.2), beam (9.0) and bars (8.675) for a winning all-around score of 36.375.

Sophomore Kristen Ainsworth was the only Patriot other than Runyon to place in the top three. She put up an 8.55 on the floor to take third.

Ainsworth also scored for JCHS on the vault (8.25), beam (7.7) and bars (7.55).

Melynda Brackman came through with a no-fall routine on the beam to score a 7.3.

"That was exciting," said Millspaugh. "She's been in the top four on beam ... and tonight she solidified that, definitely. ... And then Melynda had the nicest floor routine she's had all year."

Lexie Rowles finished with the No. 2 vault score for the Patriots with an 8.35.

Stormi Metcalf matched her career-best with a 7.4 on the bars, and freshman Shelby Pryor posted her best score of the season with a 7.85 on the floor.

"She has very flexible, high jumps that are impressive," said Millspaugh. "And she does not have any endurance trouble whatsoever. Her last pass she does not look tired. She's as strong as the first pass. So I think those two things help her a lot on floor."

Millspaugh said the biggest thing her team is working on now is taking the difficulty it has added to routines and cleaning it up. Fewer falls and smoother routines will be a key to continued improvement in the Patriots' scores.

"That's exactly what's going on, and not just with those top two," said Millspaugh, who noted that in the past her instinct has told her to pull back on the difficulty but she plans to wait longer this year. "If there hadn't been progress over the last couple of weeks then we would start watering down and going safer, but there has been progress. We're going to give it a couple more weeks and see how it goes."

Junior varsity

Shelby Pryor picked up the lone win for Jay County, taking first place with a 4.5 on the uneven bars.

She was also the team's top scorer on the beam with a third-place 6.2.

Courtney Myers tied for second on the vault with a 7.9, and Stormi Metcalf was second on the floor at 7.05.

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