Published: March 8, 2014
West happy with performance at state
Spartans finish 8th with score of 136.116
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
WISCONSIN RAPIDS — Smiles far outweighed an otherwise tense
competition in Friday’s WIAA Division 1 team state gymnastics championship
meet. West Bend West finished eighth out of 10 teams in the competition at
Lincoln High School with a team score of 136.116. Despite it being four points
fewer than what they scored at last week’s sectional, the Spartans were pleased
with their performance.
“We did good,” West coach Jackie Vorpahl said. “We’re
looking at having everybody in and scoring 136 with three freshmen on floor,
two sophomores on beam. “This is a young team getting that experience for state
so this is good.”
While it would’ve been nice to contend for a state
championship, West had more fun just having fun, not worrying about scores.
Some other teams had a different approach in what turned out
to be a historic battle for the team championship.
The Franklin co-op won an unprecedented fourth straight team
state title by the smallest margin since 2007, 0.052 points over the
Burlington/ Badger/Catholic Central/ Wilmot co-op, giving that co-op a
fourth-straight state runner-up finish. Franklin scored 147.285 points, while
Burlington had 147.233.
Third-place Arrowhead wasn’t far behind with a 146.484, a
difference of 0.801 between first and third, in one of the closest finishes
among the top-three Division 1 teams since 2000.
Had it not been for a score inquiry by Franklin coach Katie
Moore on balance beam, which gave Franklin a 0.034point boost, the score
would’ve been even closer (0.018).
“It took every ounce of effort we had,” Franklin coach Katie
Moore said.
“Burlington and Arrowhead were both awesome teams and we
knew we were going to have to give it our all.”
Whitefish Bay won the Division 2 team title for the fourth
time in six years.
“Anything’s possible,” West’s Bailey Wagner said. “We should
never rule out we can’t win, can’t do this, can’t do that. I think that the
goal for today was to have and do what we do best.”
The difference between first and second in the Division 1
team competition was the closest since the Waukesha West/North/South co-op got
the best of Burlington by 0.983 in 2007. In that meet, however, Burlington was
penalized one point for leaving its springboard by the balance beam after one
of its gymnasts used it to get on the beam, giving Waukesha the title. Since
then, Burlington has a third-place and four straight runner-up finishes.
It is just the second time since 2000 where the top-three
teams were separated by less than one point. The other time was in 2011
(0.986).
“We knew it would be close,” Arrowhead coach Bob Pulkowski
said. “But that was eight schools we just competed with. When you put those
guys together, they’re pretty hard to beat.”
Arrowhead won the 2009 and 2010 titles before Franklin’s
current run.
For West, it was a kickback-andrelax kind of evening in its
final team competition of the season.
Not worrying about points, Vorpahl used an extended lineup
to include gymnasts who haven’t competed on varsity all that much this season.
She did so as a reward for all those who were a part in getting the team to
state for the second straight season.
The expectations were kind of low going into the meet.
Trying to unseat arguably the top three teams in the state was going to be
difficult. So, to compensate, the Spartans just had fun and it wasn’t more
obvious they were having fun with their reaction after Amanda Wanie’s floor
exercise routine.
During her first tumbling pass, Wanie had a couple missteps
and ultimately stepped out of bounds. At other times of the season, it would’ve
been devastating.
Instead, Wanie and her teammates smiled and laughed about
it. It wasn’t like West wasn’t taking the meet seriously because it was. The
goal was to have fun and they did. Getting to state was the goal since the
start of the season.
In the process, the team got a glimpse of next year, which
had Vorpahl quite pleased afterward.
“Thinking big picture, we’re going to come back strong next
year,” she said.
The individual competition will take place today with Wanie
and Wagner competing in the allaround, and Lemminger on vault. Hartford Union’s
Megan Maloney and Halli McCauley will also compete on balance beam and uneven
bars, respectively.
“I feel like at state the second day is always better
because the nerves are completely gone; you’re used to your surroundings,”
Wagner said.
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