Senior strong (03/09/06)

If anyone knows good high school gymnastics, it’s Rose Nix.

The Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger coach has led the Saints to three state titles, including crowns in 2003 and 2005. Her teams have won 10 regional championships, including six in a row.

She’s coached three all-around state champions, including Jeanna Von Hoey last season, and 13 in individual events. Her team is ranked first in the state, and will undoubtedly dominate the Huntington North regional Friday night after scoring a 111.45 in sectional competition.

So, when she praises not only the talent, but the attitude, of Jay County’s Hannah Williams, it’s worth listening.

“I think she’s an awesome competitor,” said Nix in a phone interview today. “She seems to be very well disciplined. She performs very nicely and she has a very nice demeanor about her.”

Nix has seen plenty of Williams over the last three seasons at regional meets and at the state competition in 2003 and 2005. The Patriots and Saints rotated together at last year’s regional, and will be up close and personal as they do so again Friday night beginning at 6 p.m.

Despite the strong regional field including No. 1 Dwenger, Fort Wayne Snider (104.675 in sectional), Carroll (104.4), Huntington North (102.5) and Delta (99.75), Williams still stands out as one of the best. And she and coach Kristin Millspaugh are hoping for another big day.

“I’d like to go to state in all-around again,” said Williams, the Muncie Central sectional all-around, floor exercise, balance beam and uneven bars champion. “And I’d like to place in the top six in everything.”

“I would like to assume that she is going to place in the top six all-around and go back to state without any trouble,” added Millspaugh. “My goal for her would be to be in the top three all around. ... I think that would be a really amazing day for her ...”

The regional meet will likely be the end of another strong season for the rest of the team as only the top two squads and top six individuals in each event move on to state competition.

Dwenger is a lock for one of those spots, and Jay County would need to post by far its best score of the season and leapfrog three teams to earn the other. In individual events, only sophomore Erika Hunt joined Williams in the top six (sixth, bars) at the sectional competition.

So, Millspaugh is just hoping to close the team season on a strong note.

“I would sure like to beat Delta. I think we can come closer to Huntington than we did on Saturday,” said Millspaugh, whose team is making its fourth consecutive regional trip. “I don’t know for sure that they’re real beatable, but I think we can come a lot closer than we did.

“It’s just my goal every year for the three teams that come out of the Muncie Central sectional to start closing the gap on those Fort Wayne schools. They’re very elite. State champs almost every year come out of that regional.”

Dwenger, with most of its roster back from last season, proves that point. The Saints will be using the regional meet to try to clean up whatever minor problems they had at sectional in a warm-up for a try at back-to-back state titles.

“Our goal would be to continue to perform to the best of our ability, number one,” said Nix. “Number two, we would like to tweak a little bit more out of our routines and maybe increase our score a little bit. We just want to have a good meet where the girls build a little more confidence in what they’re doing.

“We’re real excited to go out there tomorrow night and do what we can do.”

If Williams does what she’s capable of she might be coming home with much more than just a state berth.

She has the ability to win both the floor exercise and the balance beam, where her sectional scores have her seeded second going into the meet. Her sectional all-around score (37.225) won at Muncie Central — it was just 0.275 points away from Dawn Ogden’s school record — and would have been second only to Dwenger’s Rebecca Trahin (37.85) at Fort Wayne.

When asked about the possibility of standing atop the regional podium, Williams, as usual, was understated.

“That would be nice,” she said.

“That would be very exciting,” said Millspaugh. “It’s a definite step up from last year when we were just thrilled to be getting by with fifth or sixth all-around. And it’s very doable.”[[In-content Ad]]