Runyon 21st on floor

INDIANAPOLIS - Senior Nadlie Runyon closed out her career Saturday at the state finals while freshman Katie Snyder started what she hopes will be a run of four consecutive trips to compete against Indiana's elite.

Runyon was an all-around competitor for Jay County at the IHSAA Gymnastics State Finals hosted by Perry Meridian, and she turned in her best effort with a 21st-place finish on the floor exercise. Snyder placed 29th on the vault, her only event of the day.

The best effort of the day for Runyon came after some early struggles.

The senior did not score as well as she would have liked on her first event, the balance beam, and then had a couple of falls during her warm-up for the floor exercise. However, she came on strong during her floor performance, nailing her full twist at the end of her first tumbling pass.

She went on to post a score of 9.175, finishing in the middle of the field of 44 competitors. Jessie Leko of Lawrence Central won the event with a 9.775, and Carroll's Caitlin Radke earned the final state medal with a sixth-place score of 9.5.

"Her floor was good," said Jay County coach Lora Schlosser. "It was a lot better performance on the floor than I was expecting after warm-up. She worked herself through it and finished strong."

Alyssa Servie took the top spot on the balance beam with a 9.625 and was the all around champion at 38.025, just 0.0.25 points ahead of Hagerstown's Caitlyn Catania.

Haley Whipps of Valparaiso took the bars title with a 9.575, and Cassie Funcheon from Columbus North won the vault at 9.8.

Valparaiso successfully defended its state title, outscoring Roncalli by 0.125 points with a score of 113.3.

Snyder fell on her first vault attempt at the state finals, but rebounded to hit her second. She had just a couple of small steps on the landing and tallied a 9.3 to finish 29th out of 49 competitors.

Chesterton's Kelly Freeman was sixth at 9.675.

"The second was probably one of the better ones I've done," said Snyder, noting that she's had worked all week on cleaning up the first part of her piked Tsukahara. "I drilled that and it felt good.

"It's good experience. It's unbelievable, (because) there are a lot of good girls here.

"Getting a nine at the state meet was just awesome."

Snyder said would like to return to Perry Meridian next season on more than one event.

"Her goal is to come and compete here all-around next year," said Schlosser. "She's going to work hard all season and try to raise the caliber of all her skills."

Runyon opened her state competition on the balance beam, her favorite event. She turned in a no-fall routine for the second straight week, but had a couple of major wobbles after her back tuck and consecutive back flips and a step on her dismount.

As just the sixth competitor of the day on the event, she scored an 8.675 and finished in 32nd place.

"She landed her big skills, but she had wobbles on all of them," said Schlosser. "And she had a step on her landing. Overall, that hurt her."

Runyon went on to post scores of 8.6 on the vault and 7.85 on the bars for an all-around total of 34.3.

Although Jay County has never made the meet as a team, 2010 marked the seventh time in 11 years that it has had an individual competitor in the state finals. It was the first time since Dawn Ogden and Danae Klatt in 2000 that multiple Patriots advanced beyond the regional. And Runyon became just the third JCHS athlete to compete in the all-around, joining Hannah Williams and Ogden.

Runyon was the first JCHS gymnast to ever win a regional championship with her 9.2 on the balance beam last week. She was also the second Patriot in school history - Williams finished in the top six on the beam in 2005 and '06 - to earn a state medal with her sixth place finish on the beam last season.

And she set the school balance beam record with her 9.6 runner-up finish at the 2009 regional meet.

"She's a strong gymnast," said Schlosser, "one of the better ones in Jay County history."[[In-content Ad]]