Full strength (02/21/06)

Tears can be good. And tears can be bad.

Monday’s were a joy to see.

Kristin Brown’s floor routine left her in tears — happy tears — and surrounded by thrilled teammates with hugs. Her full-twisting back flip at the end of her first tumbling pass on the floor exercise was the highlight of the night as the Jay County gymnastics team clobbered the Hagerstown Tigers, 101.225-80.325.

“I am very excited about my floor performance,” said Brown. “I have overcome some obstacles on floor. I competed a pass that I haven’t competed yet this season. I’m just excited to be back in the mindset that I left off on last year.”

Tumbling hadn’t been part of Brown’s floor routine this season as she instead depended on her excellent jumping skills to lift her scores. But she went for the full in practice last week, and nailed it seemingly without much difficulty against Hagerstown.

The added element, which was included in most of the Patriot routines, helped to total a second-place 8.4 for Brown. She finished behind teammate Hannah Williams (9.1), and Jenny Buckland completed a floor sweep with an 8.25.

Jay County, which broke 100 at home for the first time all season and was just short of a season-high score, also saw some new elements on the vault.

Williams piked her Tsukahara for the first time all season, which she did not attempt until the regional meet a year ago. It resulted in a winning 9.35.

Lacey Thornburg (second - 8.5), Erika Hunt (third - 8.25) and Kendra Homan (first JV - 7.9) also added new vaults.

“We had a really good meet tonight,” said JCHS coach Kristin Millspaugh. “We tried some new things on vault tonight. We had a lot of new things happen.

“It’s just some things we’re thinking about for sectional, so now is a good time to experiment.”

Williams swept the top spots for Jay County, adding wins on the balance beam (9.35) and bars (9.2). She followed her all-around title at the Olympic Athletic Conference meet, where she set a new OAC record on the floor, by scoring a 37.00 to win Monday’s all-around. It marked just the second time in her career that she scored 37 or higher.

The Patriots also saw a lot of improvement in bar routines. Thornburg’s release move was as smooth as it has been all season as she scored a second-place 7.95 in addition to her third-place 7.975 on the beam.

And Hunt finished third with a 7.35 despite a fall on her new dismount.

Millspaugh listed getting four no-fall bar routines as one of her goals to accomplish before her team heads to sectional Saturday, March 4.

“We’re getting really close,” she said. “That’s definitely doable. We have four people who have done that at one point or another. Now we just have to get them all on the same day.

“I think we’ll peak at the right time. It was so frustrating at the beginning of the year to have the injuries that we did and some of the mental blocks that were going on. Now that I think back on it, we were really lucky that that was the timing that those things happened.”

Jay County has now mostly recovered from its early-season issues. Even senior Heather Stevens, who tore her anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee in the opening meet of the season, plans to compete a couple of events at next week’s final home meet.

And Monday only one Hagerstown gymnast, Amanda Lakes, was able to crack the Patriots’ hold on the top three. Lakes was second on the bars (8.275) and tied for third on both vault (8.25) and floor (8.25).

In addition to her vault victory, Homan added a first-place 6.8 on the beam. Kayci Ryder was first on both the bars (6.25) and floor (6.8).[[In-content Ad]]