Published: March 11, 2014
Much better ending
West’s Wagner takes 5th on vault
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
WISCONSIN RAPIDS — The medal hanging around West Bend West’s
Bailey Wagner brought the senior some closure.
Wagner took fifth place on vault with a 9.433 at the WIAA
Division 1 individual gymnastics state meet Saturday at Lincoln High School.
Wagner’s score was just off the school record of 9.5, set by
Stephanie Kirn during the 2008-09 season. Wagner also has the second- highest
score in school history with a 9.483.
“I did not think I was going to get on the podium today just
because the competition is so fierce,” Wagner said. “I was surprised. It’s one
of the best surprises I’ve ever had.”
Wagner, the 2013-14 Wisconsin Little Ten Conference Gymnast
of the Year, finished 15th in the all-around with a 36.183. Teammate Amanda
Wanie was 17th out of 25 gymnasts with a 35.749.
Hartford’s Halli Mc-Cauley was 20th out of 26 gymnasts on
the uneven bars with an 8.567, while teammate Megan Maloney finished 23rd out
of 26 gymnasts on the balance beam with an 8.7.
“I was really happy with how they did,” Hartford coach Mary
Scherr said. “That’s probably one of the best bar routines I’ve seen Halli do
all year.”
Wagner is West’s first gymnastics state medalist since
Hannah Lawrence was tied for fifth on balance beam in 2011.
“She had her best vault probably of her three-year career
(at West),” West coach Jackie Vorpahl said. “That was a very, very nice fault.
She stuck it; nice form; stuck the landing; very, very nice.”
First-time state qualifier Sam Lemminger took 22nd out of 25
gymnasts on vault with an 8.9 for West. It was a personal-best score for the
senior.
“It was a good way to end the season,” Vorpahl said.
“It took her three years to get that,” she added about
Lemminger. “To finally hit it like that, hard work does pay off.”
For Wagner, the state gymnastics meet was a better ending
than the one she experienced in November.
Last fall at the state diving championship meet, Wagner was
expected to be one of the state title contenders, or at the very least, make
the awards stand (the top six). On her second dive attempt of the competition,
her knee buckled as she was about to make her dive and faulted.
It was a devastating blow for Wagner, who is committed to
dive at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay on a scholarship. She was unable
to get out of the preliminary round and finished in last place (24th).
“I couldn’t have fixed it,” Wagner said. “No amount of
training could’ve prevented that. It was just one of those things.”
Wagner’s response to the unfortunate conclusion to the
diving season was admired by Vorpahl.
“She got back up and handled herself with such maturity to
go, ‘OK. It is what it is,’” Vorpahl said. “That to me was a bigger sense of
the character and person.”
It wasn’t quite redemption, though, in Vorpahl’s eyes.
“This was different in the sense that she didn’t expect it
to happen,” she said of Wagner finishing on the podium at state gymnastics.
“She got rewarded for that.
“(At diving) she was ranked No. 3 going in. ... She could’ve
said, ‘Screw this.’” There was still some disappointment from Wagner not being
able to medal in diving. It all changed with a medal at the gymnastics meet.
“I wanted to get revenge at the state competition today,”
Wagner said.
“I’m very pleased with my performance. I don’t think
anyone’s going to remember what happened at the dive meet. They’ll remember
this.”
It was also bittersweet ending for Wagner as it was her last
gymnastics competition, a sport she has competed in for more than 10 years.
She dazzled, with a smile on her, on the floor exercise for
her final event. The moment she walked off the apparatus, her emotions began to
kick in, a realization that something she had poured so much effort into for so
long was over.
Wagner, a three-time state qualifier in gymnastics and
diving, insisted they weren’t tears of sadness, but happiness.
“I finished my gymnastics career with a boom,” Wagner said.
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