Warsaw’s Remi Beckham had a huge day at the Lakeland Invite. (File photo by Mike Deak)
LAGRANGE – It certainly doesn’t seem like the gymnastics season is half over, but the Lakeland Invite took place Saturday, serving as the unofficial halfway point of the gym season.
With so many cancellations and postponements from January’s brutal weather palette, most teams haven’t had much work against other rosters. So the assembly of the Wawasee sectional plus Fort Wayne Carroll and a couple others have that reality check with less than four weeks until the sectional is really here.
“This is a good time in the season to have this invitational,” said Wawasee head coach Nika Prather. “We get to see how we stack up against them. And then we have three weeks to concentrate on our weak areas to prepare for tournament time.”
Not surprisingly, Fort Wayne Carroll – a state finalist from a year ago – won the Lakeland Invite with a 108.275 while DeKalb finished second at 105.625 and Angola was right behind at 105.375. In an interesting next grouping, Warsaw took fourth at 101.7, beating out Wawasee’s 99.425 and Elkhart Central’s 98.925.
Remi Beckham had a nice meet, placing fifth on floor at 9.35 and bars at 8.575. Her all-around score of 35.00 put her sixth overall in the meet.
Jada Parzygnot tied for fifth on vault at 9.0 and tied for sixth on floor at 9.25. Her 34.65 all-around was good for eighth in the meet.
Adree Beckham scored a 33.5 all-around for the Tigers and Drey Wegener scored 32.95 for the Warriors, both placing in the meet’s top 15. Wegener’s 8.75 on beam tied for fifth-best.
Top performers from the Lakeland Invite were Shiloh Miller of DeKalb on vault (9.6), Sarah Boyd of DeKalb on bars (9.175), Ashlynn Steinke of Carroll on beam (9.425) and floor (9.55), and Steinke compiled the top all-around at 37.325, besting Boyd by one full point.
Warsaw will visit Plymouth Wednesday while Wawasee will visit Elkhart Central Thursday.
