NW Indiana Girls Gymnastics - Chesterton Sectional Championships

Crown Point Girls take 3rd, advance from Chesterton Sectional Gymnastics Championships

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
03-03-2007

Vault-Bars-Beam-Floor
1. Valparaiso (28.225-27.150--27.550-27.825) 110.750
2. Chesterton (27.675- 26.4,-26.2-27.925)   108.500
3. CROWN POINT (27.675-24.050-28.250-28.250) 108.225
4. Hobart (26.750-24.850-26.200-26.850)   104.650
5. MERRILLVILLE (26.950-24.150-25.000950-27.150) 103.250

6. LaPorte (26.700-24.300-25.550-26.650)   103.200
7. Portage   (25.759-25.050-25.800-25.800)   102.400
8. Michigan City (24.850-24.850-25.700-26.400) 101.800
9. Lake Central (25.900-20.700-20.050-24.950) 91.600
10. LOWELL (23.250-16.050-20.800-21.550) 81.650

BALANCE BEAM
1. Alyssa Coker (CROWN POINT) 9.625
2. Martina Buchholz (CROWN POINT) 9.525
3. Emily Holmen (Valparaiso) 9.375
4. Emily Crabtree (LaPorte) 9.350
5. Kaylene Wagner (Hobart) 9.275

6. Katelyn Skinner (Valparaiso) 9.250
7. Kelly Freeman (Chesterton) 9.175
8. Taylor Holm (Michigan City) 9.150
9. Trisha Eberly (CROWN POINT) 9.100
10. Ashley Farley (Portage) 9.100

UNEVEN PARALLEL BARS
1. Kelly Freeman (Chesterton) 9.500
2. Kathy Rawley (Valparaiso) 9.250
3. Kaylene Wagner (Hobart) 9.100
4. Jessica Johnson (Valparaiso) 9.100
5. Martina Buchholz (CROWN POINT) 8.850

6. Ashley Farley (Portage) 8.850
7. Lauren Ross (LC) 8.650
8. Taylor Rose (Valparaiso) 8.650
9. Maunya Jacobs (MERRILLVILLE) 8.600
10. Kaylyn Schwanke (Michigan City) 8.500

VAULT
1. Katelyn Skinner (Valparaiso) 9.725
2. Kelly Freeman (Chesterton) 9.400
3. Kaylene Wagner (Hobart) 9.350
4. Alyssa Coker (CROWN POINT) 9.325
5. Taylor Rose (Valparaiso) 9.300

6. Marissa Crafton (Chesterton) 9.300
7. Megan Batten (LaPorte) 9.250
8. Julianna Weaver (Chesterton) 9.250
9. Ashley Farley (Portage) 9.20
10. Gia Laski (LC) 9.20

FLOOR
1. Julianna Weaver (Chesterton) 9.550
2. Alyssa Coker (CROWN POINT) 9.500
3. Martina Buchholz (CROWN POINT) 9.475
4. Diona Milenkovski (MERRILLVILLE) 9.400
5. Katelyn Skinner (Valparaiso) 9.350

6. Taylor Holm (Michigan City) 9.350
7. Marissa Crafton (Chesterton) 9.350
8. Leslie Levenhagen (Valparaiso) 9.30
9. Emily Crabtree (LaPorte) 9.275
10. Trisha Eberly (CROWN POINT) 9.275

ALL-AROUND
1. Katelyn Skinner (Valparaiso) 37.125
2. Martina Buchholz (CROWN POINT) 37.000
3. Kaylene Wagner (Hobart) 36.975
4. Kelly Freeman (Chesterton) 36.575
5. Alyssa Coker (CROWN POINT) 36.500

6. Emily Crabtree (LaPorte) 36.150
7. Lauren Ross (LC) 35.800
8. Ashley Farley (Portage) 35.450
9. Julianna Weaver (Chesterton) 35.175
10. Taylor Holm (Michigan City) 34.900
11. Trisha Eberly (CROWN POINT) 34.625
12. Megan Batten (LaPorte) 34.500

CHESTERTON (3-3-2007) - Gymnastics meets aren't very long so, once things go badly, its hard to turn it around. So, when Crown Point scored 24.050 on the balance beam to start the meet, they were in serious trouble. The Bulldogs realistically needed at least 105 or 106 team points to have an outside chance to finish in third place and advance to the regional. Fourth place teams at the sectional go home. So Crown Point needed a team score of 27.000 on all of the last three events, a tall order with the pressure on.

Coach Ami Pysh didn't think her girls got a fair shake in the judging, but she also knew it was not a time to blame the judges.

"We were terrible," she said. "I didn't yell at them, but I told them the way it was going to be the rest of the meet. I saw their faces and they were scared. I said, 'You don't have a choice. I'm the boss of you and you cannot fall the rest of the way."

"She just got us together," said senior Martina Buchholz of Pysh, "and she said there aren't going to be any more falls. Not just because we couldn't afford them, but she just said there weren't going to be any."

Pysh's effort at mind control was successful. Crown Point recorded a 28.250 on the beam, a 28.250 in the floor exercise and a 27.675 on the vault to place third (108.225) behind Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) champion Chesterton (108.500) and sectional champion Valparaiso (110.750). Those three schools will represent Northwest Indiana at Friday nights' 6:00 p.m. Valparaiso Regional.

"I didn't care where we finished," said Pysh, "as long as we got out (advanced to the regional). We got to the state finals two years ago, but we had a Level-10 gymnast who got 9.7s and 9.8s (Jorie Stahl) and she was only with us one year. This time we really did it as a team."

For those of us outsiders, the difference in the top teams was striking. Chesterton used eight different girls on the four events, counting on specialists like Marissa Crafton, who got a 9.3 on the vault and a 9.35 on the floor exercise but did not compete in the other two events. Valparaiso got a 9.3 on the floor from Leslie Levenhagen, but she only participated in two events.

Buchholz, plus Crown Point sophomores Allysa Coker and Trisha Eberly competed in all four events and senior Hillary Groff took on three events. One style of making up a team is not any better than the other. The object is for your team to win. But Pysh, in her fifth season, was very happy at being able to develop three gymnasts who all have state finals possibilities Friday together or as individuals.

"I have just such a wonderful team," Pysh said. "And they've finally started to look up to Karyn (assistant coach Pearson) and I as adults. When we first started, I think they looked at us as older kids. I'm sorry to say I'm getting older, but now I think they look at us as adults. We really don't have problems any more with the girls arguing with us about how to do things. Sometimes when they start out, they do once. But never again. The kids who are freshmen and sophomores, we're the ones who started them in gymnastics in middle school. They have respect for us. This team is great. They're so agreeable."

For Valparaiso and Chesterton, the result was a reversal of the DAC meet, which Chesterton won. Valparaiso was the only team to record at least 27 points on every event and they won the sectional for the fourth year in a row. Chesterton slipped from 111.875 at the DAC meet to 108.5 Saturday, but they survived to rebound at the regional.

Martina Buchholz missed the DAC meet with a high fever, but she was back Saturday and in top form.

"Martina is so sick," said Pysh. "I don't think anybody here knows how sick she is. Her eye was almost completely shut. The flu that she had infected some orthodontic work she'd had. They had to cut an abscess and drain it to push that infection out. They gave her drugs, but she can't take them eight hours before she works out. She can only take them to sleep.
She's a senior and she's going through all this."

"I'm pretty happy I was second all around," she said. "I had the best group of parents and coaches and doctors. I knew our team had a good chance of making the regionals. Second time ever. So, I had to be here."

The moment of truth came in Crown Point's second event, the balance beam. After CP's poor effort on the bars, they had to get straight immediately. On the beam, Crown Point went 1-2 with Coker (9.625) and Buchholz (9.525).

"I almost cried," said Pysh. "The only other time I've done that was when Jorie got a 9.7 at the regional two years ago. I was so happy."

From that point, CP rallied. On the floor exercise, Coker (9.50) was second and Buchholz (9.475) was third.

"We just had to stick our beam routines," said Buchholz. "We knew we had it in us, but we just had to do it now."

CP's 27.675 on the vault was good, but by that time, the Bulldogs knew they would be among the top three finishers. CP fell just short of defeating Valparaiso for second place, but there was no need to do that this week.

"I didn't really want to beat them for second place this week," said Pysh. "That doesn't matter. Next week (Friday) is when we want to beat them.

The Bulldogs will have to do it from the start next week because the order of competition reportedly will be the same with CP starting out on the parallel bars, an event that has nagged them the last two Saturdays.

"We need a high score overall," said Buchholz, "but we just need to hit our bars routine. That's what it will take."

CP probably needs to approach 110 points to reach the state finals Friday. The Bulldogs had not scored 109 points in a meet this season, but assuming a 28 on the floor and a 27 on the vault (CP has done that in both of the last two weeks), the Bulldogs would need 27s in the other two events. They have not touched 27.0 on the bars all season. But they were a couple of falls away from a 10 last week. The feeling is, they are close.

"I think we're peaking at the right time," Pysh said. "I really do. We really made a great comeback today."

SECTIONAL NOTES: Martina Buchholz looked like somebody had punched her in the eye Saturday. "It's because of the infection," she explained. "They had to cut the gum open to get the infection. Actually, I was more upset because I couldn't smile during the floor exercise. I like being here, I don't want the judges to think I didn't want to be here."

Because only two teams advance to the state finals from Friday's Valparaiso Regional, there is the mathematical possibility that a team could have three of the top six all-around performers and not finish the meet as one of the top two teams. Only three performers can score for a team in each event. But a team with three of the top six performers conceivably could finish third.

"And that team would not go to the state finals as a team," said Crown Point coach Ami Pysh. "Their (combined team) score would not count in the state meet. And that's wrong. It wouldn't add any time to the meet. Those three girls would be there anyway."

Pysh didn't say it Saturday but the truth is, three teams should advance to the finals from each regional. That would increase the number of state finals teams from eight to 12, but most sectionals have 10 or more teams. Reportedly, the reason to have only eight state finals teams is because the meet would run too long with 12 teams and all the individual qualifiers. But there would be fewer individual qualifiers if three teams qualified from the regional. And the state wrestling finals' final day runs nine hours. A 12-team gymnastics meet would run approximately five hours.

Lake Central's first year as a gymnastics team ended when Lauren Ross fell just short of a state finals berth in the all-around (35.800) competition and did not qualify for the regional in any event. Merrillville's Maunya Jacobs, operating with a torn ACL, competed only on the parallel bars, the one gymnastics event where you do not use your legs. Her routine appeared to deserve a lot more than the 8.6 it received. The bars scores were very low all day.

Trisha Eberly actually finished in a tie for second at the DAC championships on Feb. 24, not fourth as was stated here. Eberly (36.275) was tied with Chesterton's Julianna Weaver and second behind Kelly Freeman (37.900).