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Published Saturday, May 03, 2008 in Sports

Third time's the charm for GymCats

By News Staff

The Times-Herald

Gymnastics is all about consistency. And through its first three years of existence, Newnan High's GymCats showed their steady progress at the GHSA state meet -- fourth in 2006 and third in 2007. So second place seemed to be the natural landing point for the team in trip No. 3, right?

Try first, instead.

Without a top-three finisher at any part of the rotation, Newnan showed that consistency and depth are the keys to winning a state championship Friday night. Springboarding into first place among six finalists at the GHSA State Meet, held at The Westminster School in Atlanta, Newnan finished with 110.025 points, over a point better than runner-up Walton (109).

Senior Chelsea Glory's yurchenko pike on the vault on the last rotation sent GymCat teammates into each other's arms, knowing they had sealed the state title. Glory's score of 9.25 gave Newnan a trio of 9s on the vault and enough breathing room to celebrate.

The effort was a well-deserving reward for a group of seven athletes, including four seniors that were the core of the program's existence -- which wasn't a sure thing in 2006.

Coach Kate Davis remembers going to longtime Newnan athletic director Gaston Green with a proposal to begin a gymnastics team prior to the 2006 season. While Green knew there was a talented group of then sophomores to compete, he worried that the program might disappear after the foursome of Elizabeth Davis, Chelsea Glory, Maureen Kookogey and Kristen Pirie graduated.

The rising talent at the Newnan School of Gymnastics under the guidance of owner Cricket Shelnutt, provided evidence of rising talent. The four seniors had competed together since the third grade at the club level. And Newnan's success ultimately was able to platform into an inaugural varsity team this season for East Coweta High.

"We told him, all we need is a chance. We felt like the group that we had was talented enough to win," said Davis of the initial proposal to Green. "When he saw there was going to be a feeder to the program, he agreed."

A state title promised in 2006 only took three years in the making. And 'take state in 2008' became more than a catchy saying. The addition of three more starters over the past two years helped to build a solid rotation on every event.

Finishing behind Newnan and Walton in third was Milton with 107.95 points followed by last year's champions Roswell, then Colquitt County, which won last week's state qualifier, and Lassiter.

The state qualifier produced only one all-arounder for Newnan, freshman Paige Pirie. For a team with depth, this allowed for some tinkering with the line-up, a move made by the team during warmups on Friday night.

Rock-solid all three years on the bars, Newnan was able to put up strong scores on the event and get comfortable in the rotation order to start the meet. The team scored 27.7 on the event with three of four routines hit. An injury to Haley Todd, a strong sophomore performer, allowed freshman Haley Pilgreen to step up with a 9.0. She was followed by Pirie's 9.4, good enough for a fifth place individual finish, and senior Chelsea Glory's 9.3.

Inconsistency on the beam during the regular season had the GymCats in the gym this week making adjustments to routines. The plan was to get two good routines in the rotation. Newnan delivered with three. Though the scores were the team's lowest as a team for the night, Glory's 8.8 along with Pilgreen's 8.7 set up senior Elizabeth Davis' big hit of 9.4, a score which eluded her in the qualifier.

Possessing great style and choreography from lay coach Lyudmyla Sorokima, Newnan moved to its strongest team event, the floor exercise -- and was actually forced to throw out a 9.0 score when the team hit on all four routines, while needing to choose three efforts in the scoring.

Missing senior Kristen Pirie in last week's qualifier, Newnan relied on her presence in the rotation to set up her teammates. The move paid off as she was awarded a 9.15 to start. She was followed by sister, Paige, whose 9.575 along with Davis' 9.3 gave the team its highest team total of the night with 28.025. Davis' score netted a fifth place finish in individual competition.

In the vault, Davis began the rotation with a 9.15 and Kookogey's emotional 9.05 set the stage for Glory, both on and off the mats.

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