Members of the Columbus North and Columbus East gymnastics teams wait to compete in an IHSAA sectional gymnastics meet at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Columbus North had some of its best scores of the season on three of the four events Saturday afternoon, but the balance beam proved to be the Bull Dogs’ downfall.
North had to count falls from all three of its scoring gymnasts on the beam, and with a half-point deduction for each, that was more than the difference in fifth-ranked Bloomington North being able to edge the No. 10 Bull Dogs 108.175 to 107.975 for the Columbus East Sectional title.
“There are definitely areas where we can improve and hopefully will improve for next week (at the Franklin Central Regional) so that we can come back and get our title again from Bloomington North,” Columbus North co-coach Kaitlyn Rediker said.
The Bull Dogs began with a 27.475 on the vault and a season-best 28.1 on the bars. But they managed only a 25.275 on the beam before finishing with a 27.125 on the floor.
“I’m very pleased with the way we started off on vault and bars, but we kind of fizzled a little bit on beam,” Columbus North co-coach Bob Arthur said. “We didn’t have any girls stay on beam through the whole routine, so anytime you do that, that’s not going to help. We did a very decent floor routine, but we did have to take a very high 7 in that combination, and we need to be 8s and 9s only moving forward.”
The Bull Dogs did have the top two finishers in the all-around competition. Emily Moore won with a 38.075, and Reese Euler took second with a 37.175. Franklin Central’s Austyn Dykes, who edged out Moore for the state all-around title last season, was third with a 36.975.
“I’m happy about it,” Moore said. “I’m excited that we’re moving on as a team.”
Moore won the vault (9.625), bars (9.8) and floor (9.675). Euler finished second on the vault (9.6) and floor (9.5).
Lindsey Mullis, who came back from a knee injury to compete only on the bars in her first meet of the season, took second on that event with a 9.275.
“I definitely think there’s areas we can work on, but I’m still proud that our whole team gets to move on to regional, and we can just focus on what we can improve for Friday,” Euler said.
Roncalli claimed the third-and-final team qualifying spot to Friday’s regional with a 105.275.
The host Olympians finished eighth with a 96.975. They opened with a 23.575 on the beam, followed by a 23.625 on the floor, 25.725 on the vault and a 24.05 on the bars.
Cami Warren led the Olympians with a tie for 15th in the all-around (32.575). Reagan Mount finished 18th (32.45), and Winter Shaver was 21st (31.2).
“I think the girls just knew going into it that it was going to be a hard competition, and we just asked them to do the best and do what they could do,” East co-coach Katie Menefee said. “We had a rough start on beam. The girls did well on vault and bars, and we were happy with that, but we struggled on the other two events.”
