Wawasee Pieces Together Win Over Plymouth [VIDEO]
SYRACUSE – Senior night for the Wawasee gymnastics team had all three seniors in the house. Only one, however, was dressed and ready to go. As Wawasee deals with the annual crush of injuries that plague programs near and far as the sectional looms, battling for attrition seemed appropriate as the Lady Warriors had to hold on to beat Plymouth 95.325-93.00 Tuesday night.
Just Deea Coy was able to go to represent the class of 2015 and factored into two of Wawasee’s scoring events, recording an 8.3 on vault and 7.75 on floor. Both Molly Smith and Taylor Busse are recovering from injuries incurred last week, and of course, were vital in the scoring dip for the Lady Warriors.
Busse’s absence on the bars left the Lady Warriors with just 21 team points in the event, and only two scores above a 5.75. Smith was missed on floor, where the traditionally strong Wawasee floor routines had Reagan Atwood push a giant 9.45, but no one else in black and green better than Coy’s floor tally.
Atwood, herself, had big numbers with an 8.5 on vault, 8.125 on bars and 8.7 on beam despite a visibly nagging back forcing her to the floor with a heating pad between events.
Injury worries? You bet, stated Wawasee head coach Nika Prather.
“It’s just something we deal with every year it seems,” Prather said, who lamented about the general state of most teams. “I know everyone is hurting, but this is the time of year you have to suck it up and do it. We know right now we can’t rely on having Taylor and Molly back, surely at full strength at this point. Thank the good Lord if they are able to practice and be ready for sectionals. But we can’t rely on that.”
[weaver_youtube zzVq3mSa7U0 rel=0]Prather’s biggest issue with her team’s output Tuesday was the floor, noting errors and sloppy combinations from her varsity while the JV performers scored in the eights. Both LeighAnn Shrack (8.15) and Bridget Griffin (8.05) outdid all but Atwood in the Wawasee varsity ranks, which was not just a postgame talking point on record, but among her gymnasts and assistant coach, Sarah Wegener.
“I asked Sarah, ‘We have two JV scores in the eights. And one varsity score. Why?” stated Prather. “That shouldn’t happen. Our main focus has to be getting the floor figured out. They are very capable, but they’ve been working on this all season. It’s the end of the season, and tweaking some things should be the only thing we’re working on. Not trying to come up with a point, point-and-a-half per gymnast. It’s very frustrating.”
One of the target areas for Wawasee to keep an eye on was flying around in red and silver. Cassi Quissell for Plymouth has been and will be a force in the sectional and continued to post huge numbers. The senior put up an 8.875 right out of the gate on bars, then added an 8.85 on vault, 9.525 on floor and 8.65 on beam. The floor score was the eye popper, considering Atwood’s huge floor number.
Plymouth, which struggled early in the season to score, has bounced back with a solid trio of all-arounders. Quissell’s 35.9 all-around figure was accented by an 8.925 on floor from Karly Gruett and 8.4 on vault from Bailey Eveland.
Quietly, Plymouth has snuck into the discussion again after peppering the top five at the sectional the last three years. Prather is very aware.
“We know Cassi is going to be near the top in everything if she hits like she can,” Prather said.
Wawasee had all but one of the top four scores in the JV competition against Plymouth. Leading scorers for the Lady Warriors were 7.85 on vault from Katelyn Baker, 5.1 on bars from Hannah Potulney, 6.7 on beam from Shrack to go with her top floor score.
Wawasee (5-4 overall) has one meet left Monday at West Noble ahead of the March 7 Wawasee Sectional.