Records, state in reach

The Jay County High School gymnastics team had an odd 2008-09 season.

Weather cancellations left the schedule disjointed - the team went three full weeks without a meet prior to the sectional - and struggled to reach its potential. But when they finally returned in the tournament at Muncie Central, they came alive.

The Patriots first put up their best score of the season to finish as the sectional runners-up and earn a seventh straight regional berth. Six days later in the regional meet they set the season-high score again, breaking the century mark for the first time all year with a 100.25.

Nadlie Runyon put an exclamation point on the season, breaking the school record with a regional runner-up balance beam score of 9.6. She went on to earn a state medal on the event with a sixth-place finish.

As Jay County prepares to open its 2009-10 season - the team's first meet is Saturday at Marion - it hopes to keep building off of the momentum from last year's tournament.

The team goals this season are lofty.

"I'm looking to see possibly the overall team score being raised," said first-year coach Lora Schlosser of the JCHS school record of 108.05 set in 2000. "I hope they can do that. I'm hoping to just raise all the levels of their gymnastics. ... They've got a lot of big shoes to fill if they want to beat the individual event high scores, but I think there are a couple very capable of doing that."

If the Patriots, who won three sectional titles and advanced to the regional in seven straight seasons under former coach Kristin Millspaugh, can even make a run at the school-record score they will also have a chance to advance to the state finals. Last season it took a score of 105.55 to reach the state meet, and the number has fluctuated between 102.8 and 109.925 over the last five years.

Runyon, now a senior, is back to lead the effort. She already owns one of the individual school records after breaking Hannah Williams' mark of 9.55 with her regional effort last season.

(Dawn Ogden holds two of the other school records at 9.6 on the bars and 37.5 in the all-around. Hannah Williams has the floor record at 9.7, and Danae Klatt owns the vault record with a 9.575.)

Runyon was the only Patriot to earn a top-six ribbon at the 2009 sectional meet, posting a fourth-place finish on the balance beam. She was seventh on the floor exercise, eighth on the beam and 10th on the vault for a seventh-place finish in the all-around.

She jumped up at the regional meet for her runner-up beam finish, and was also ninth on the bars and in the all-around competition.

"Beam, through her history, she's ... been strong," said Schlosser, who previously coached Runyon when she was the owner of Gym City Gymnastics. "And she's strong on floor. Just her skill level is really revved up on those two events.

"Nadlie is the oldest and most seasoned. She has been through a higher caliber of competition that most of these girls have, just from going to state last year ... I look for her to help lead the team."

Junior Kristen Ainsworth joins Runyon as Jay County's other returning all-around competitor. She placed seventh in the sectional vault last season and was ninth in the all-around.

Her best regional mark came on the beam, where she finished 12th at the Huntington North meet with an 8.9.

Freshman Katie Snyder will give the Patriots a third all-around competitor. Although she'll be new to high school gymnastics, she is not at all a newcomer to the sport.

Snyder won the Indiana Gymnastics state championship in the 14-year-old Level 8 vault in March, posting a score of 9.6 on the event.

"For a freshman, she's going to be a strong competitor," said Schlosser. "She's been a competitive gymnast since third grade."

While that trio will be counted on for a lot of points, but there will also be a host of other girls with a chance to fill varsity positions.

Other returning varsity competitors from the 2009 sectional meet are juniors Lexie Rowles (vault), Kyli Kelso (beam), Lindsay Moser (bars) and Melynda Brackman (floor), and sophomore Shelby Pryor (floor). Lyndee Evans, another sophomore, competed on the floor exercise at the regional meet.

Schlosser said Jenna Barber, another freshman, has a chance to join Runyon, Ainsworth and Snyder as an all-around competitor. Also competing for varsity sports are Brackman, Evans and Kortney Taylor on vault; Rowles and Moser on bars; Kelso, Brackman and Pryor on beam; and Evans, Pryor, Brackman, Moser and Rowles on floor.

Through the season JCHS will use six varsity competitors on each event. In the Olympic Athletic Conference, sectional, regional and state tournaments that number drops to four.

"They all know that we have 15 girls fighting for a possible 12 (varsity and junior varsity) positions," said Schlosser. "I think it will create some healthy competition. I think it's going to help them raise the bar a little bit to earn that spot.

"Our strength is going to be floor and beam. I think we have some big skills that are going to be pulled out on beam as well as on floor."[[In-content Ad]]