Columbus North’s Reese Euler competes on the uneven bars during a gymnastics meet at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Two teams who appear to be peaking as the season winds down will attempt to continue that trend when they compete in today’s Columbus East Sectional.
Tenth-ranked Columbus North scored a season-best 109.3 in Monday’s regular-season finale at Columbus East. The Olympians had a 100.2, their second-best score of the year.
“I think we’re peaking at the right time,” North co-coach Kaitlyn Rediker said. “We still have areas that we want to improve. We counted falls tonight that we don’t want to count at sectional, regional and state, so we’re hoping to improve on those.”
The Bull Dogs have the second-best high team score of the teams who will be in the sectional, which starts at 1 pm today. Bloomington North has a 109.35, just five-hundreths of a point higher than Columbus North.
Bloomington North beat the Bull Dogs in a dual meet early in the season, but Columbus North turned the tables on the Cougars in winning the Conference Indiana meet.
The Bull Dogs are led by senior Emily Moore and freshman Reese Euler, with sophomores Alli Chambers and Laney Acton and junior Marieme Niang providing most of their third scores. Moore, who has multiple sectional and regional titles and is the defending state champion on the beam and state runner-up in the all-around, had her best all-around score of the season on Monday.
“That’s what you want,” Columbus North co-coach Bob Arthur said. “You never want to start off with your strongest at the beginning and fizzle out or even just stay on a plateau. We want to see those scores continuing to progress, and the girls are working hard. They’re getting tired. They’re starting to feel the aches and pains of so much practice, but they know that the end is in sight and they don’t mind putting that little extra effort in.”
The top three teams, plus any individuals in the top six in an event or the all-around who are not on qualifying teams, in the sectional qualify for Friday’s Franklin Central Regional.
East, with its 101.95 in last week’s win against Owen Valley, has the sixth-best high team score. But the Olympians are only 1.2 points behind third-place Franklin Central’s best score.
Columbus East’s Winter Shaver vaults during a gymnastics meet against Columbus North at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Feb. 21, 2022.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
“We have some strong possibilities to do (qualify),” East co-coach Katie Menefee said. “The team has the talent to do it. We just have to hit all of it, and we do have some strong individuals that could potentially go through. It’s just one of those things, we’re going to have to wait and see how it goes on Saturday. Sectional kind of hypes us up and gets us excited.”
East is led by junior Cami Warren and seniors Reagan Mount, Winter Shaver and Carlie Menefee. The Olympians have posted their best two scores of the season their past two meets after Warren and Shaver returned from minor injuries.
With a healthy lineup, East is hoping to advance an individual or two, if not the entire team.
“As long as we go out and do our best, we don’t really care,” East co-coach Melissa Dishinger said. “We’re here to have fun. This is the end of our season. We want them to enjoy it.”
Columbus East Sectional
When: 1 pm today
Where: Columbus East High school
Teams: Columbus East, Columbus North, bloomington North, bloomington South, Edgewood, Franklin Central, Indianapolis Lutheran, Indianapolis Scecina, Martinsville, Owen Valley, Roncalli, Seymour
Admission: $6
