Jay tops Spartans (01/22/2009)

The Spartans were not at full strength.

But Jay County was still more than happy to walk away with a big victory over the three-time defending conference champions.

The Patriot gymnastics team defeated visiting Connersville by a wide margin Wednesday, 97.15-87.95.

"It sure is exciting to beat our biggest conference rival by 10 points. However, I don't think their full team was here," said JCHS coach Kristin Millspaugh, noting the absence of Clarissa Marschand and Sarah Counceller from the Spartan line-up. "As exciting as it is to win by 10 points, we will still go into the conference meet very cautious of being overconfident because I know they weren't at their strongest tonight."

Connersville won seven straight Olympic Athletic Conference titles before the Patriots broke their streak in 2005. It has won the last three in a row as well, fighting off JCHS by just six tenths of a point last season.

Nadlie Runyon paced Jay County by winning three events and out-dueling the Spartans' Devyn Duncan for the top all-around score.

The junior turned in her best effort with a 9.15 on the floor exercise, and also won the vault - she shared the title with teammate Kristen Ainsworth at 8.9 - and the balance beam (8.7). She placed second on the uneven bars with an 8.2 while Duncan won with an 8.8.

Runyon, who spend last season on the JCHS swim team but won the conference beam title as a freshman, fell just five hundredths of a point short of her career-best all-around score with a 34.95. Duncan, last season's OAC all-around champion, finished second at 33.1

"To see where Nadlie compares to Devyn Duncan was important tonight," said Millspaugh. "Because I think our No. 2 and 3 can hang in with their No. 2 and 3, so Nadlie is going to be pretty important at the conference meet."

Sophomore Kristen Ainsworth scored for the Patriots on every event, adding a third-place finish on the floor exercise (8.25) to go along with her vault win. She also tallied a 7.3 on the bars and a 7.0 on the balance beam.

Lexie Rowles and Stormi Metcalf also had big days for the Patriots.

Rowles' 8.6 on the vault marked a career best as she tied for third place with Metcalf on the event. Metcalf was also third on the bars with a 7.4, and Rowles came through with the team's lone no-fall beam routine of the night to place third with a 7.05.

"Lexie is still gaining some confidence back from the knee injury this summer," said Millspaugh, complimenting the junior on how far she has come already. "Tonight she did a little bit more tumbling on floor than she had, and that's the first back walkover she's made on beam ..."

Lyndee Evans, a freshman, added the No. 3 score for the Patriots on the floor exercise, falling just five hundredths of a point of her career best on the event with a 7.7.

Jay County closed the meet still chasing the 100-point barrier, with falls being a big key to reaching that level of success. The team counted four falls each on the balance beam and uneven bars against the Spartans, and each fall is an automatic half-point deduction.

Still, Millspaugh said she was happy with the way her team bounced back from its last meet. While the Patriots defeated both host Tri and Lincoln Monday, they scored just 91.95 points.

"I'm glad to see that we can bounce back from that," said Millspaugh. "It would be easy to come into a meet like Connersville that they knew was going to be a big meet coming off of a bad meet and not perform very well. That's encouraging to see that they can ... turn things around in two days.

"I feel like we're ... coming a long. Some of the things that we threw in that weren't quite ready are more ready than they were a week ago. They're still not quite where they need to be by sectional ... but we have plenty of time."

Junior varsity

Jay County won all four junior varsity events, led by Cortney Myers with an 8.3 on the vault.

Lexie Rowles added a top score 7.2 on the floor. Shelby Pryor a 6.35 to win the balance beam, and Melynda Brackman posted a 4.8 on the bars.[[In-content Ad]]