Gymnasts get experience, fun at state team competition
Springfield places 11th, Perrysburg 12th at meet
3/4/2017HILLIARD, Ohio — A veteran of four state individual meets, senior Kaylynn Frantz tried to provide a guiding hand to her teammates on the Springfield gymnastics team Friday during the state competition at Hilliard Bradley High School.
After making three consecutive appearances in the state team meet from 2013-15, the Blue Devils got back to the state’s highest level after winning a district championship.
One of two teams from the Toledo area, Springfield finished 11th (130.925) at the 12-team meet as Brecksville-Broadview Heights (147.150) won its 14th consecutive championship and 17th overall.
Perrysburg (130.400) finished 12th.
“It was really cool to bring everybody here because, for a lot of them, it’s their first time,” Frantz said.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: State gymnastics championships
“I got to experience it differently being on the leadership side of things. Everything went pretty well.”
Frantz scored 34.575, followed by Olivia Holley (33.400), Kara Frantz (31.800), and Sophia Catera (30.550) for the Blue Devils, who scored 34.400 on floor exercise and 34.075 on vault.
“It was a lot of fun,” Holley said. “It was exactly the kind of experience that [Kaylynn Frantz] told us it would be.”
Coach Jessie Hodulik was pleased with her team’s performances on floor and vault.
At the state individual meet today at Bradley, Catera is competing on vault and Kaylynn Frantz is competing in the all-around.
“We struggled on beam and bars, but our scores on vault and floor were some of our best all year,” Hodulik said. “We didn’t count any falls [on vault], and three of our girls scored 8.725 on floor.”
Perrysburg’s best scores were turned in by Bailey Lewicz (32.150), Johanna Westrin (31.625), and Breanna Plummer (24.075).
On floor, Westrin scored 8.475, Emma Francis had an 8.400, and Plummer scored 8.300.
The Yellow Jackets, who were making their first state appearance since 2010, scored their most points on floor (33.750) and vault (33.200).
“Our vault was pretty good,” coach Michelle Nordhaus said. “Our bars were solid. Our floor is usually our highest scoring event.”
Emily Hilbert, who competed in two events for Perrysburg, was one of just three seniors in the program.
During the state individual meet, Westrin is competing on vault and floor, and Emily Mitchell is competing on vault.
“It was really cool,” Hilbert said.
“It’s definitely been one of my favorite meets, and it was a good one to end my high school career on. I feel like we did our best. We’re a really young team.”