Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

This doesn’t occur very often, but 2007 will be one of the few times the girls gymnastics team does not have anyone qualify for the state meet.

Head coach Nancy Ellias mentioned that her terrible disappointment from last Saturday’s sections would have to be read between the lines, but it comes across loud and clear in her comments.

“It’s really fun to take an entire team to state and it’s pretty neat to bring individuals, but it is discouraging to not have any gymnasts go on,” she shared.

One letdown for Ellias was not seeing Nicole Paulson make it to state, even though Ellias felt her senior captain deserved it.

For the past year, Paulson has been focused on pulling off a Yurchenko (a round-off entry) vault at the state meet, and Ellias truly believed Paulson was good enough to qualify, but the judges disagreed.

On Feb. 17, the Rangers were first up on the vault, and there is always the concern that judges will “save” some of the top scores for later in the competition.

With four gymnasts making state from each event, Paulson ended the day in the dreaded fifth position.
In fact, all season long, Paulson maintained an average score of 9.6 on the event and was even named all-section with an average score of 9.66, but on Saturday she was given a 9.575.

“Nicole finished with some strength on the floor,” Ellias noted, “but all hopes were gone.”

Taylor Brett had a solid performance. Ellias didn’t think it was the best she’s seen from the freshman, “but when I looked at last year’s scores, she was a full two points higher in her all-around (score). She has come so far and is still young!”

Stephanie Sampair earned personal bests in both the beam and the floor exercise.

“That was nice for her final meet,” Ellias said.

For the rest of the team, Ellias said they had a good vaulting set; the uneven bars were fairly average; the balance beam was shaky with many falls, but the floor exercise was the best of the season.

“So we ended on a good note,” Ellias said.

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