No Question, Farmington #1 for 2018-19
March 8, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
ROCKFORD – Chasing last season’s MHSAA gymnastics championship may have been a bit more exciting for Farmington United.
But repeating at Friday night’s Team Final put the finishing touch on a dominating run that left no doubt which was the state’s best again this winter.
Compared to 2018, when Farmington ended Rockford’s three-season hold on the title and the top three teams were separated by three tenths of a point, this finish was a bit more comfortable.
Farmington – which won all of its meets this season – clinched the title this time with a score of 145.550, 1.3 points better than the runner-up Rams.
“It was actually more fun this year because we didn’t feel (like) as much of an underdog,” Farmington senior Kacey Noseworthy said. “We were coming in here confident, and we could believe it. But there was more pressure knowing that we kinda were expected to win.”
Farmington United – made up of gymnasts from Farmington High, North Farmington and Farmington Hills Harrison – posted the Final’s highest scores in the vault (37.700), the second highest on floor exercise (37.575), tied for the second-highest on balance beam (35.500) and then third highest on uneven parallel bars (34.775). After Rockford/Sparta, the next closest team was more than three points off the lead.
The margin was slimmer after Farmington finished its second rotation of the afternoon. But vault provided an opportunity to make a move – and longtime coach Jeff Dwyer’s gymnasts let their best fly.
Junior Elena Vargo threw a vault with a max score of 10.0, and she scored 9.80. Sophomore Sydney Schultz went with a vault she learned just two weeks ago with a max of 9.80, and she posted a 9.50.
“Vault is kinda a wild card. It’s one you sometimes hit and sometimes don’t,” said senior Ava Farquhar, who posted a 9.050 on the apparatus. “It’s hard, depending on the situation, the gym and the equipment. Going in, we all just tried our best. Warm-ups turned out pretty well, so we got a little excited.”
Vargo, a favorite in Saturday’s Division 1 individual competition, finished with the Team Final’s highest all-around score, 37.825. Noseworthy, a likely contender in Division 2, posted an all-around 35.775. Farquhar, Schultz, senior Shelby Smith, sophomore Allison Schultz and freshman Kamini Playle also contributed at least one score. Four of those seven also contributed to the winning team score in 2018.
“You’ve gotta have a pretty unique group of girls who can do it two years in a row,” Dwyer said. “And you can sense that, how they compete and how they work out in the gym. So I knew we had a shot again this year. But these (Finals) are hard to win.”
Plymouth followed Rockford/Sparta in third place, an improvement of three places from a year ago. First-time Finals qualifier Fowlerville finished fourth, and Livonia Blue edged Northville to round out the top five.
Reigning Division 1 individual champion Cate Gagnier of Grosse Pointe United, a sophomore, scored an all-around 36.400, as did Rockford/Sparta senior Reagan Ammon. Rams junior Morgan Case scored a 36.350, and Livonia Blue sophomore Makenna Fedrigo posted a 36.300 all-around.
Rockford/Sparta did post then highest scores on bars (35.075), beam (36.025) and floor (37.600) but only the seventh-highest on vault (35.550), 2.15 off Farmington's score on that apparatus.
“Farmington’s been like steady beating us the whole year, so we kinda thought we would get second with maybe a tiny chance at first,” said Case, a contributor on the 2017 championship team and last year’s runner-up as well. “But we’re really happy with what we did.”
The Individual Finals in both divisions begin at noon Saturday, and in addition to the championship Farmington United also might have won Dwyer his first good night’s sleep in a few days.
He said he hadn’t slept for three nights heading into Friday’s competition. But his gymnasts stepped up to the pressure of being the favorites with a perfect season on the line, taking the pressure off with an opportunity to sweep the individual titles up next.
“I think it just shows a testament, one, to our coaches; and two, to the family that we’ve made,” Farquhar said. “This sport is about making friendship, and your team really is a big part of it because it’s so mental. And I think our team put together a great team this year.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Farmington United gymnasts celebrate repeating as MHSAA Finals champions Friday. (Middle) Farmington teammates watch as Elena Vargo performs her bars routine. (Below) Rockford's Reagan Ammon takes her turn on floor.
Escanaba Vaulting Into Regional off Program-Record Team Score
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
March 4, 2022
ESCANABA — The Escanaba gymnasts are enjoying a record-breaking season as they head into MHSAA Tournament competition.
The team has turned in five school scoring records, with its most recent at Negaunee on Feb. 21 in earning the Great Northern Conference title with 135.05 points.
They’re looking forward to the Regional meet Saturday at Rockford.
“Before the season I couldn’t even imagine getting scores that high,” said sophomore Sophia Wagner, who won vault with a perfect 9.4 score Dec. 7 in a dual meet at Negaunee. “Our team scores have been above 120 points all year. We all push each other to get better. I think qualifying for the Regionals as a team was our biggest highlight. Getting that done early gave us more time to work on new skills. This has been an exciting season.”
All this has taken place during a year in which Escanaba gymnastics is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
“The girls are driving each other to get better in every practice,” said coach Theresa Pascoe. “When you can practice every day on a spring floor (at Triple A Gymnastics), it makes you want to get better. What’s making our team so much stronger is having newer equipment. You can only go so far on older equipment.
“It seems like the girls want to practice all the time. One time I gave them a day off and they all showed up. They want to do all the things the girls do downstate. If the girls want to do more, that’s my motivation to be here.”
They achieved their previous best score while winning their own invitational Feb. 5 with 134.1 points.
“That’s a great feeling,” said senior Lizzy Sliva, whose personal-best score in vault is 9.3. “It’s a lot of fun being on this team. We were able to qualify for the Team Regionals within our first four meets which is important because there’s a lot of stress at first. Once we did that, I was able to focus on getting my routines cleaner and adding difficulty. I want to keep challenging myself in all four events.”
In their previous outing, the Eskymos were runners-up at the Vassar Invitational on Feb. 19.
On Jan. 29, they placed sixth among 10 teams in the Antigo, Wis., Invitational, which is among the oldest meets in the region.
“That was a big accomplishment,” said Sliva. “Valders (Wis.) Invitational is similar to Antigo. Valders and Coldwater (Invitationals) are fun meets. The competition downstate is just as good as in Wisconsin. It’s a lot of fun going down there and competing on a spring floor.
Senior Caitlyn Davenport had similar thoughts.
“This season has really been exciting,” she said. “I’m proud to be part of this team. This has definitely been our best season. Everybody has come together and been helping each other. Qualifying for the Team Regional has taken a lot of the pressure off. It feels like we’ve been making a lot of progress. I’ve been at a lot of open gyms and done weight training during the offseason. I think we’re pretty close with the teams in Wisconsin, and going downstate has definitely gotten us more experience.”
Escanaba’s score at the GNC meet was nearly eight points better than last year’s highest (127.1).
“This has been a great year,” said sophomore Bridget Bichler. “We have a real strong team. We’ve made a real big jump from last year. When we broke 130, it was real exciting. It was a great confidence builder, and to be able to get high scores downstate is real encouraging. We got a compliment from one judge in Coldwater who told us how impressed he was with our team. It’s a great feeling.”
The gymnasts also gained experience from other venues, according to Pascoe.
“Five of our girls have competed in age group programs in USA Gymnastics,” she said. “Several are doing kips on beam, which is something that doesn’t happen very often. For so many years we had been near the bottom in Wisconsin meets. Now we’re holding our own. We have a very small team in numbers (eight), but most of the girls have been in gymnastics nearly all their lives. We have a lot of experience.”
Freshman Sophie Lehto said she has noticed a major change from the younger levels.
“This has been a great learning experience,” she said. “We’ve been working on a lot more skills and more difficult skills. There’s a lot more development, and the competition is very different. It was a significant step.”
John Vrancic has covered high school sports in the Upper Peninsula since joining the Escanaba Daily Press staff in 1985. He is known most prominently across the peninsula for his extensive coverage of cross country and track & field that frequently appears in newspapers from the Wisconsin border to Lake Huron. He received the James Trethewey Award for Distinguished Service in 2015 from the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
PHOTOS (Top) Escanaba celebrates its Great Northern Conference team gymnastics championship last month. (Middle) Caitlyn Davenport competes on balance beam during an early February meet with Negaunee. (Top photo courtesy of Escanaba gymnastics, middle courtesy of the Escanaba Daily Press.)