Lawrence — Nerves may have gotten the best of Shawnee Mission Northwest over the weekend at the state gymnastics meet.
After finishing fourth at the Sunflower League meet the previous weekend, the Cougars scored 100 points, 1.4 points behind Olathe Northwest, to drop to a fifth-place finish on Saturday at Lawrence High School. Shawnee Mission North walked away 10th overall, with 92.425 points, out of the 13 teams represented.
Olathe East garnered the firstplace finish (106.775 points) coming out ahead of Lawrence Free State (104.925).
The Cougars’ team performance on the uneven bars represented the best performance of the year. Junior Grace Gregory scored seventh in the event, missing a sixth place finish by just .10 points, yielding the highest placement for a Cougar.
“Out of all of our meets, the bars that we did were our best bar routines all year,” SM Northwest coach Cindy Beason said. “Not the best scores, but they added the difficulty and a few of the girls did some new skills.”
Those new skills may have contributed to falls in three out of the four events, reflected in the Cougars’ overall placement, Beason added.
“I think we were a little bit nervous and a little bit jittery,“ she said.
Despite the occasional missteps, junior Mallory Wilhite used her hands uncharacteristically in one of her tumbling passes during the floor routine, resulting in a ninth-place finish. Wilhite fell just .15 points short of a 10th place finish in the all-around competition.
Recovering from an irritated shoulder last week at the league meet, senior Caitlin Chen held back on her tumbling but still managed to place 21st for her floor routine and 30th on the beam.
Senior Jen Lanman led the Indians, consistently placing the highest among her team in the four individual events throughout the day. Lanman placed 14th in all-around competition, with her highest score coming in the vault, where she placed eighth with a 9.075.
Fellow SM North senior Elaina Zinn performed her best of four events during the floor routine for 33rd place. Teammates Caitlyn Howard (7.8), Natalya Freeman (7.525) and Sarah Gradient (6.750) placed 48th, 52nd, and 58th respectively in the same event.
Collectively, SM North had the fifth-best vault scores (25.775) out of the teams represented at state.
Reflecting on the end of the short, 10-week season, Beason said the team consistently collaborated throughout the year.
“They did work together as a team, and I was very proud of their accomplishments,” Beason said, referring to the season. “Fifth place is nothing to sneeze about, even though I know the girls wanted to be in the top three. But they did a great job.”
Angelique McNaughton 