Patriots put scare into OAC rival (01/19/06)

CONNERSVILLE — Jay County sent the Connersville Spartans a message Wednesday night. They won’t be getting their conference title back without a fight.

The Patriots gymnastics team lost, but kept the meet close against the host team in a 100.55-99.2 defeat.

“I would have loved to beat them — they’re always fun to beat — but my biggest goal was to at least put a little scare into them, make it a good meet,” said JCHS coach Kristin Millspaugh. “Hopefully they’ll come into the conference meet a little nervous because of what we did tonight.

“I think at this point in the season we still have a lot of improvements that can be made before the conference meet. That’s encouraging.”

The Spartans dominated the Olympic Athletic Conference for more than a decade, winning 14 out of 15 OAC titles. They had won seven in a row before Jay County took its first conference crown in school history by a 100-98.55 score last season.

The Spartans entered this year’s meet as the favorite, having cleared the 100-point barrier a couple of times already. Jay County’s top score was a 97.3 Monday night at Cambridge City Lincoln.

But the Patriots, who were still missing sophomore Erika Hunt because of an ankle injury, posted their best scores of the season on three out of four events for their season-best total.

“I hope it sparks something,” said Millspaugh. “I started to see their personalities come out again tonight, and that’s nice to see. They didn’t look scared. They didn’t look unsure of themselves.”

o reason to be.

Despite having several falls, Jay County’s 23.1 score on the uneven parallel bars was a season best. One of those falls came from Hannah Williams, but she got right back into the action to perform a pair of Giants resulting in a second-place 7.9.

Lacey Thornburg and Kristin Brown followed with matching 7.6s for the Patriots.

Jay County went on to season-best team scores on the vault (25.6) and floor exercise (26) with Williams leading the way. The senior was second on both events with scores of 9.2 and 9.25 respectively.

She won the balance beam with a 9.1, and was second all around with a 35.45.

Connersville’s Kristin Gilley took first place in the other three events as she broke her own school record with a 37.55 all-around score.

“Hannah had a good solid night all-around,” said Millspaugh of Williams, who is still working her way back to full strength after a early-season ankle injury. “Her all-around score went up again.

“Bars is getting there. She still doesn’t quite have the endurance from not having done full routines.”

Junior Lacey Thornburg was the only other Patriot to finish on the top three on an event. Despite losing a half-point for a fall, she placed third on the balance beam with an 8.0.

Thornburg had the No. 2 score for the Patriots on the other two events as well, posting a career-best 8.55 on the floor and an 8.4 on the vault. She also had a career-best all-around score of 32.55 to finish third.

Brown and Jenny Buckland tied for third on the team on the vault with an 8.0. Brown was also third on the team on the balance beam with a 7.4, and Buckland was third on the team on the floor with an 8.2.

Millspaugh said the key to catching Connersville and claiming a second OAC title will be make routines more difficult.

“For the most part, our execution is pretty good,” said Millspaugh. “Our big issue this year is trying to get the difficulty in. I think we look pretty clean right now, for the most part we just need to start adding some difficulty. And we’re heading in the right direction.”

Jay County also won all four junior varsity events, two by Larissa Butcher and two from Kayci Ryder. Butcher had scores of 7.4 on vault and 5.0 on floor, and Ryder notched a 5.8 on beam and a 5.6 on bars.[[In-content Ad]]