Published: March 3, 2016
‘Uncharacteristic’ day behind West’s Johnson
Senior eager for last routine
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Alexis Johnson is grateful she has one more opportunity —
and she’ll have it at the WIAA individual state gymnastics championship
Saturday at Lincoln High School in Wisconsin Rapids.
The team competition is Friday.
Johnson, a senior at West Bend West, qualified for state
after scoring a 9.075 at the sectional. She will be joined by teammates Jenna
Heimark and Jessica Butters, as both qualified for state in the all-around.
West Bend East’s Maddy Boss qualified on floor exercise and
Zoey Roberts won the sectional championship on beam to also qualify for state.
West and East didn’t qualify for the team competition.
“I’m very excited,” Johnson said. “It’s sunk in by now. It’s
been fun to come back to practice and get to do that routine one more time.”
Almost three weeks ago — Feb. 13 — at the Whitefish Bay
Invitational, an uncharacteristic day caught Johnson by surprise.
Normally solid on the balance beam, Johnson had three falls,
which knocked down her score to a 6.95 — 36th place.
Throughout the season, she averaged between an 8.7 or an
8.8.
“That was an uncharacteristic meet,” Johnson said. “It
definitely wasn’t a typical beam routine for me.” So what happened?
“I don’t really know what happened, to be honest,” Johnson
said.
“Everybody can have a bad meet,” West coach Jackie Vorpahl
said. “For whatever reason, she lost the focus for that meet.
“I look at that as a fluke,” she added.
The meet at Whitefish Bay is considered by those in the
state gymnastics circle to be a “mini-state meet” because of the caliber of
talent there.
Arrowhead, Grafton/ Cedarburg, Madison Memorial, Manitowoc
Lincoln and Whitefish Bay were among the teams at the meet — all are state-qualifying
teams this season.
Johnson doesn’t believe she was intimidated.
“It had been a long day,” she said. “It was our last
rotation, so I don’t know if I had the right mindset going into beam that I
usually have.”
After the routine, though, she remembered thinking to
herself, “What in the world just happened?”
“I was shocked,” Johnson said. “I looked at Jackie and said,
‘I don’t know what happened.’” Vorpahl knew Johnson had it in her to get back
on the beam and get back to the level she knew Johnson could perform at.
And a part of that was because Vorpahl believes Johnson has
a similar trait to what former state medal winner Bailey Wagner had: a short
memory.
Wagner took fifth on vault at state in 2014. Johnson was a
sophomore that season and competed with West on beam during the team
competition.
“She was a great teammate and had a positive attitude, which
made gymnastics more fun for me while she was on the team,” Johnson said of
Wagner, who is diving at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Vorpahl never worried about Johnson’s confidence. “She got a
lot out of Bailey and has kind of taken on that persona that Bailey did that
I’m going out and just going to do it,” Vorpahl said. “I think for her that was
the best thing that ever happened to her.”
Johnson scored a 7.95 at state in 2014 on beam during the
team competition. More importantly, Johnson had no falls. Afterward, Vorpahl
knew she had something special with Johnson.
“You already saw you could handle the pressure,” Vorpahl
said.
Johnson knew she needed a good routine at conference and
didn’t doubt she could do it. Vorpahl had no doubts, too. Johnson scored an
8.85 to take third place.
“I did feel like I didn’t do as good as I could’ve done (at
Whitefish Bay),” Johnson said. “I was excited to get another chance to show
what I could do.”
Then at the sectional, she put together a lifetime-best
performance on beam: her first 9.
“It was very exciting,” Johnson said. “I’ve been working for
it all season. I finally had a routine where there weren’t any wobbles. I was
pretty excited when I got off.”
Those two performances helped put the Whitefish Bay meet
behind her. She has also learned something from that meet: Don’t let the guard
down when it comes to focus.
“What happened at Whitefish Bay won’t happen again,” Johnson
said. “I’m just going to go and do it (at state), knowing it’s my last routine.
I’m just going to be confident and have fun with it.”
And hopefully go out with a bang.
“I just want to have a good routine so I can say bye to high
school gymnastics on a high note,” Johnson said.
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