2 WALKER PHOTOS MISSING
North gymnasts rally on final event to top East
By Ted Schultz
Going into the final rotation in Wednesday night’s cross-town gymnastics battle, Columbus East was in position to spring the upset.
But leading by 1.275 points going into their fourth event, the beam, the Olympians had a few falls. Meanwhile, Columbus North came through on the floor to rally for a 106.9-104.55 victory.
“We just gave it away on balance beam,” East coach Nancy Kirshman said. “It’s a sad state of affairs. We had the meet won. All we had to do was do beam routines.”
The Olympians scored a 23.95 on the beam. The Bull Dogs, led by a winning 9.55 effort from Chelsea Wieland, scored a 27.575 on the floor.
Ironically, North had just finished the beam, which was also its worst event.
“The beam was nobody’s friend tonight,” North coach Sandy Freshour said. “We didn’t have a good time on beam.
“I love this group of girls,” she said. “They did it (in a win against Bloomington North on Monday) night. They can have a bad event that they don’t let it get them down. They smile. They don’t cry, and they come back. It was just awesome because we improved our team score on floor, and we could have just packed up our bags and gone home, and they didn’t.”
Freshman Katrina May finished second on the vault (9.425) and bars (9.15) and third on the floor (9.05) and led the Bull Dogs with a second-place all-around finish (35.425). Wieland added a win on the beam (8.725) to her floor triumph and took third in the all-around (35.05).
“I think I messed up a little bit on beam, but my team was there for me, and I finished up well on floor and had a good meet,” May said.
East’s Daran Brady won the all-around with a 36.525. Brady won the vault (9.575) and bars (9.3) and finished second on the floor (9.5) and third on the beam (8.15).
“We were going out there to win, but we really didn’t have a strong mindset on beam, and I think that’s what killed us tonight,” Brady said. “It was the last event, and we let our focus go. We’ll get ’em next time.”
