Patriots finish fourth

KOKOMO — Two gymnasts earned a pair of career-bests scores.
The Patriots had their highest score of the young season.
Jay County High School’s gymnastics team finished fourth Saturday at the Northwestern Invitational.
The Patriots scored 93.675 points, a full point higher than their season-opening meet Jan. 7.
Logansport won the six-team meet with a score of 105.9. The Northwestern Tigers were second and the Western Panthers were third. Team scores for the Tigers and Panthers were not available.
Freshmen Karlie Bullard and Riley Leavell both had a pair of career bests.
Bullard scored an 8.275 on vault and a 7.425 on uneven bars. She finished third on the team with an all around score of 30.225.
Leavell’s new best scores came on balance beam (7.05) and floor exercise 7.025, and she totaled 28.75 on all around.
Junior Maddie Strausburg scored an 8.65 on vault to finish sixth. She was the lone Patriot to finish in the top six, and also had an 8.075 on floor to lead Jay County with a 31.3 all around score.
Jocelyn Huey and Miranda Hibbard posted their highest scores of the meet, an 8.475 and 8.3 respectively, on vault.

Tribe tops ’Riders
FORT RECOVERY — Fort Recovery’s girls basketball team won its seventh consecutive game for the second time this season Saturday with a 60-43 victory over the St. Marys Roughriders.
It appeared as if it would to go down to the wire after the first half, as Fort Recovery (14-2) had a 19-15 lead after the first quarter and just a 33-31 advantage at the break.
But St. Marys committed half of its 14 turnovers in the third quarter and made just one of its seven shots as the Indians pulled away in the period with a 12-2 scoring advantage.
Junior Jocelyn Kaiser led all players with 18 points and also had seven rebounds. Whitney Will followed with 13 points and Grace Thien was close behind with a dozen.
Shania Taylor led St. Marys with 17 points.
Fort Recovery’s junior varsity team fell to 5-10 with a 43-23 loss.
Brooke Gaerke led the Indians with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

Stars win big
BERNE — Cindy In’t Groen picked up where she left off Saturday by helping the Class 2A No. 10 South Adams girls basketball team to a 54-34 clubbing of the Woodlan Warriors.
South Adams (17-3, 5-1 Allen County Athletic Conference) jumped out to a 21-6 lead after the first quarter and pushed the advantage to 38-15 at half. The Warriors (12-10, 3-3 ACAC) got the deficit back under 20 by outscoring the Stars 11-1 in the third quarter, but the momentum slipped away in the fourth.
In’t Groen, who missed six games because of an issue with her international visa, was 5-of-7 from the free-throw line and finished with 17 points, sharing the team high with Lexi Dellinger.
Woodlan’s Rain Hinton led all players with 20 points.
Emilee Myers scored 16 points to lead the South Adams JV team to a 44-21 victory.

Miles wins all around
INDIANAPOLIS — Courtney Miles won the Level 8 all around competition in the two-day Indiana Judges Cup gymnastics meet Saturday and Sunday at Indiana State Fairgrounds.
The 15-year-old Jay County High School sophomore scored a 32.525 to win the 15-and-older Level 8 competition, thanks to an 8.75 and first place on balance beam.
She added a second-place finish on vault (8.0), third on floor (8.675) and fourth on uneven bars (7.1) to compete her score.
Halle Hill, an eighth grader at West Jay Middle School, was second on vault in Level 8 with a 9.05, adding a 9.225 (third) on floor and an 8.85 (fifth) on beam. Her all around score of 34.4 was fifth.
West Jay seventh grader Hannah Outcalt tied for ninth in Level 4 with a 33.3 all around score. She was fourth on beam (9.05) and sixth on floor (8.75).