Everything came together perfectly for Emporia High’s gymnastics team to have its best meet of the season, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
A little rest, several girls getting healthy and some refinement by the coaches led to a team-best 85.45 points and 13 personal bests for the Spartans on their senior night.
Newton won the meet, finishing with 100.95, but that was beside the point. The Spartans were all smiles after their best performance of the year, and this night belonged to their five seniors.
“I think it was our senior leadership that kept everyone going,” EHS coach Barbara Clark said. “They’re a close team, and they work well together.”
All five seniors placed in at least one event. They were led by senior Haley Risley, who placed sixth in the all-around with a personal-best score and placed in all four events. Risley’s best performance was on the floor with an 8.4, good for third place. She competed on the floor for the first time since injuring her ankle on Sept. 26 at Lawrence Free State.
“I changed some of my tumbling passes,” Risley said, “and instead of working on tumbling, I really worked on the little things, like the jumps and my execution, so that really helped out my score a lot.”
Risley also placed sixth on the vault, ninth on the bars and sixth on the balance beam.
Senior Alex Allen, who has been battling a back injury, had her best score of her career on the beam with a 7.6 and finished in fourth place, the highest finish for the team.
Seniors Madison Reiber and Kylie Mains had the most emotional nights, because they were competing for the final time. Both gymnasts will miss the Regional meet on Oct. 31 to perform with the school band at Neewollah.
Reiber had a personal-best 7.9 on the vault, finishing in seventh place. She also competed on the floor for the first time all season because she’s been battling ankle and elbow injuries. She finished in 11th place and finished the routine with tears in her eyes.
“It was a personal goal for me to be able to perform floor, at least at the home meet, to prove that I actually can still do it,” Reiber said.
Mains finished eighth on the bars with a 4.65 and 10th on the beam with a 5.8.
“This being the last meet, I just wanted to put forth everything I had,” she said.
Senior Brenda Del Alba also had a personal best score on the beam, finishing ninth with a 6.05.
Junior Kaitlyn Miller had the best all-around night for the Spartans, finishing fifth in the all-around, second on the floor, fourth on the vault, eighth on the beam and seventh on the bars.
Ashley Wheeler had the final top-five performance, finishing fifth on floor with an 8.05.
The Spartans are off until the Regional meet and hope to carry over their momentum from Tuesday night.
“I think if we keep up our positive attitude and work hard at practice this week, we’ll have a chance to maybe go to State and do good,” Risley said.