Railer gymnasts set to host state meet

By Mark Schnabel
Newton Kansan
The Newton High School gymnastics team is poised for its highest finish in nearly 30 years as the Railers host the state championships Saturday at Ravenscroft Gym.
Newton placed second at last week’s regional meet behind Lawrence Free State.
“They’re looking real good,” Newton coach JoAnne Thaw said. “We’ve had some real good practices, but we’ve had good humor in them to relax them. They’re excited.”
Newton is hosting the meet for the sixth time. The last time the Railers hosted was 2003, but Newton didn’t qualify for that meet as a team.
“We had no state qualifiers,” Thaw said. “This time it’s wonderful. ... The girls feel (being at home) will be an advantage for them. They didn’t like the bars at Olathe (for regionals). They did well on them. This time, they’ll be on bars they like. They’ll be used to our beam. They fell like they’ll have a lot of support from spectators.”
The Railers have won the meet twice — in the spring of 1976 and again in the fall of 1976. The sport has been a fall sport ever since.
The team nearly fell under the ax of budget cuts this year, but the team raised the money needed to continue for this season.
“It’s been tough, but we’ve treated it the same as any other year,” Thaw said.
Thaw looks at Lawrence Free State and Shawnee Mission Northwest as two of the top contenders this year, along with the Railers. At regionals at Olathe North, Free State downed Newton 104.70-101.715. Olathe North was third at 95.575, and Olathe South was fourth at 95.325. The top four teams advance to state.
At the other regional, Shawnee Mission Northwest won with a score of 102.575, winning the title by more than five points.
“Just going from scores, it should be those three teams (Free State, Northwest and Newton),” Thaw said. “We’re just not sure in which order. Anything can happen. Free State beat us at regionals, but it’s a matter of who hits that day.”
Olathe East is the two-time defending state champion but failed to qualify as a team. Northwest is the defending runner-up while Free State was third last year. Newton finished sixth.
Dru Davis of Free State will be among the favorites in the all-around competition, winning the regional title last week. At the other regional, Olathe Northwest’s Elayna Briggs won, followed by Shawnee Mission East’s Katye Bever. Davis was sixth at state last year while Briggs was fourth.
Newton’s top hope for an all-around medal lies with sophomore Riley Roberts, who took second at regionals last week. Junior Jamie Hansen took fifth at regionals while junior Maria Jantz just missed a regional medal.
“I feel pretty good, but the competition’s hard,” Roberts said. “I’m hoping to be one of them. Dru Davis is going to be pretty good. She’s a senior, so I’ve been following her. I just want to do my best. I need to get my fulls on floor, and I need to hit my new vault. I’ve been working hard for it.”
“Dru and Riley have been battling back and forth all season,” Thaw said. “There are some good all-arounds.”
Thaw said the balance beam will be a key to the Railer’s success.
“We need to stay on the beam,” Thaw said. “We need to hit. We’ve worked on it at regionals. We didn’t all hit floor and we didn’t all hit beam at regionals. That’s what we’ve been working towards. The bars looked pretty good. We’ve been hoping to have two new vaults. We do have Katelin (Gaeddert) doing a handspring full, which will raise our score.”