The Wawasee Gymnastics Sectional should be open for the taking as several teams and over a dozen individuals coming in with realistic chances to claim postseason glory. (Photos by Mike Deak and Nick Goralczyk)

SYRACUSE – Every year in almost every sport, high school coaches wax poetic and fret all in the same breath about sectional hopes. All the other teams are so good; their teams have flaws; it’s a total crap shoot.

The gymnastics coaches in the area have a legitimate concern this year as the Wawasee Gymnastics Sectional approaches. Five teams are within five points of one another based on top team scores throughout the season, over a dozen athletes are sprinkled among the state’s top event scores and every team is dealing with injury concerns. Welcome to postseason gymnastics.

Wawasee’s Reagan Atwood will enter the sectional a legit contender in the all-around.

Host Wawasee and head coach Nika Prather have made no bones in its quest to grab a team regional position. Having not made a team regional since the 2009 season, and not won a sectional since 2004, Prather’s team certainly has some proving to do, but has the talent to contend.

Leading the pack is freshman Reagan Atwood, who has consistently scored in the 34-35 all-around range all season. Atwood has scored with the best of the sectional competition all year, but has had a lingering back issue pop up in the last two weeks. Injuries to seniors Taylor Busse and Molly Smith, as well as minor nagging issues with several others has left Prather scrambling to find some points from the team’s depth. But she still feels confident her team will come through.

“We are hoping another five days of healing will make the difference,” Prather said of Busse, who gives Wawasee scores in the eights on bars and beam. “She won’t be doing high beam skills until Saturday morning. We want to give her every possible opportunity to get a spot in the line up.”

Prather noted junior Ashleigh Frecker and senior Deea Coy have locked in their spots in the lineups, both providing Wawasee with quality vaults among other skills. Scores on floor and bars are going to make or break Wawasee given the season pendulum, so watch those events in particular as the sectional unfolds.

Jazzmine Brown will headline for Warsaw this weekend.

“I haven’t watched a lot of the other teams when they are performing, but I know about half the sectional are in about the same boat as far as team scores,” Prather said. “There are going to be so many good gymnasts at the sectional. We are going to have to be on our A-game if we want to keep up.”

Warsaw’s chances for a regional berth may lie in one athlete, Jazzmine Brown. The talented senior has been one of just a handful of active Tigers this season, but the most consistent. Brown has scored in the mid-eights all season on vault and has an all-around in the low 30s, but may need a significant bump in her all-around to qualify for regional. Teammate Katie Richard will also be active in an all-around mode.

“Jazzmine did very well this year. It was a big change coming from club gymnastics to high school,” said Warsaw head coach Megan Kammerer. “We had quite a few injuries this year and had to push our underclassmen to step up and fill our varsity spots. And they did just that.”

The two teams to beat at the sectional likely will be defending champion DeKalb or Elkhart Central. Both have eclipsed the 104-point range this season and are loaded with talent. Twin sisters Hayley and Ryley Gibson from DeKalb and the duo of Libby Yeakey and Kiara Stabler from Central will have a say in the top individual scores. Grace Gorman and Caitlin Marlow from DeKalb and Skiler Reveal from Central add depth for each club.

East Noble’s Alyssa Skiles headlines the Knights, who are scoring near 100 per meet. Others to watch in the field include Plymouth’s Cassi Quissell, Lakeland’s Sam Gieseking, West Noble’s Amanda Huntsman and Westview’s Karyssa Davis.

The Wawasee Gymnastics Sectional begins at 11 a.m., with the top three teams and top six individuals in each event qualifiers for the Huntington North Regional March 13.

Wawasee senior Taylor Busse will get at least one more crack to make regional on the uneven bars.