SM Northwest fifth, SM North 10th at Saturday’s state gymnastics meet

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.”

Cougars, Indians get tuneup for state at league gymnastics meet

Both Shawnee Mission Northwest and Shawnee Mission North gymnasts had the opportunity to gauge their competition a week ahead of the state championship meet on Saturday during the Sunflower League championship meet.

SM Northwest totaled 99.85 points for fourth place, a mere 0.6 points behind SM West, at the 11-school meet held at Shawnee Mission East. Competing mostly on the opposite side of the gym, the Indians placed 10th overall with 91.5 points.

Lawrence Free State took home first place with a combined score of 104.575, with Olathe East putting up 103.775 for second place.

SM West edged the Cougars out of a top-three overall finish, only three days after the Cougars placed second overall at SM Northwest’s home Cougar Classic meet.

“We looked better than what I expected,” SM Northwest coach Cindy Beason said on Sunday. “Overall, skillwise, I think we are making improvements and I look to see even more improvements by next Saturday.”

Grace Gregory, an SM Northwest junior, yielded a third-place finish after a solid performance on the balance beam with a score of 8.55. Gregory also led her team in the all-around competition, placing ninth.

“Grace was very good, considering she had a fall (on the balance beam), and had she not fallen she would have placed first,” Beason said.

Teammate Mallory Wilhite, who won the floor routine last week, placed eighth in the same event on Saturday with an 8.8.

Senior Caitlin Chen struggled in the same event, placing 25th with 8.1. Toward the end of her routine, the 17-year-old gymnast began to grimace and fight back tears.

A dislocated shoulder sustained during the state competition last year came back to haunt Chen during warmups and has hindered her final season as a Cougar.

“It hasn’t been as great of a year as I was hoping it could have been,” Chen said.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s state championships, Chen said she wants to be satisfied with her routine and maybe even nab a first-place medal.

“I want to be able to be happy with what I’ve done,” Chen said. “But it would be really nice to place top three in the floor. Last year I had a really good chance of it and it all crumbled; to come back and reclaim that would be great.”

Chen has been with the Cougars since her freshman year and said the short season’s been somewhat of “an emotional ride” for her, one of seven seniors graduating in May.

“It’s super exciting and super sad,” she said. “It’s putting it all out there.”

SM North coach Chuck Lundblad had similar advice for his two seniors going into their final meet.

“Talking to one of the seniors, I said, ‘If not now, then when?’” he said. “I don’t want them to say ‘what if …’ or ‘if only I would have done this better or that better.’”

Lundblad said the Indians’ lack of depth — and the experience and confidence that come with it — contributes to the team’s placing.

“All the girls, and not just these girls, all the gymnasts doubt themselves and they don’t have the confidence,” he said.

With a mostly freshman squad, Lundblad is hoping to finish in the top eight at the competition.

Senior Jen Lanman secured 10th place in the all-around competition behind SM Northwest’s Gregory, with 33.375. Lanman also wound up in a three-way tie for second on the vault led by a 9.25.

Fellow senior Elaina Zinn said she felt like she “struggled with consistency” in her events. Zinn didn’t place within the top 10 in either the vault or the uneven bars, scoring 7.1 and 8.3, respectively.

“I think I have the skills, I just need to work on improving them and the technique,” Zinn said. “I wasn’t as consistent (on Saturday) and have new skills in there and I’m excited to show them off next week.”

Natalya Freeman received her best score (8.0) in the vault to finish 32nd in the all-around competition with 26.75.

Lundblad said his team basically needs to work on the essential fundamentals in gymnastics.

“We need to work on form, and on the beam we had too many falls,” he said. “You just need to have three solid scores.”

All but two of the teams that will be competing at this Saturday’s state meet at Lawrence High School were at the Sunflower League meet.

Beason said ultimately she’s comfortable with the Cougars’ performance over the weekend.

“I like going into state in fourth position,“ Bleason said. “(We) can be the dark horse that might sneak in and surprise someone.”