Pauls’ all-around win leads Olathe East to Kansas gymnastics title

Source: The Star

CHUCK FRANCE | SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Olathe East’s Annie Pauls performed on the beam Saturday. She captured the all-round title at the Kansas state gymnastics meet.

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For a while now, Olathe East gymnastics coach Lydia Messenger has been telling senior Annie Pauls that all her hard work would pay off eventually.

Messenger told her in practice, whenever Pauls would get frustrated with a routine or a skill. She told her after a meet, whenever Pauls would be disappointed with her performance.

And on Saturday, Pauls proved Messenger right. In the final meet of her high school career, Pauls went out a champion, winning the all-around with a score of 36.5 and leading the Hawks to their second straight team state championship at the Kansas state gymnastics meet at Olathe East.

“I’ve screwed up at state meets in the past, so I felt like I had nothing to lose,” said Pauls, who fell on the beam at state last year and the bars in 2006.

But this year, Pauls avoided any major mistakes. Thanks to all the work she put in during practice this year, she said her routines “felt like second nature” on Saturday.

But Pauls was just one piece of the championship puzzle for the Hawks, whose team score of 106.350 was a full point higher than second-place Shawnee Mission Northwest. Fellow senior Beth Copeland took second in the all-around with a score of 36.275, while Messenger said junior Elly Steck posted her highest all-around score of the season with a 33.575, which was good enough for 14th place.

Copeland, who also won the floor exercise, said defending their state title was the top priority for the Hawks.

“Of the past four years, this (year’s) team has probably worked the hardest,” Copeland said. “We got into the mindset that we had to do our best and prove ourselves.”

Senior Candice Owen and junior Sierra Trussell led SM Northwest, which finished second in the team competition for the second year in a row. Owen finished third in the all-around with a score of 35.975, while Trussell finished seventh in the all-around and won the beam.

Olathe Northwest junior Elayna Briggs took fourth in the all-around, while SM East junior Hannah Quillec took fifth and also won the vault.

Lawrence Free State took third in the team competition, thanks in large part to solid performances from junior Drue Davis and sophomore Kelcy Bowers, who took sixth and eighth in the all-around, respectively.

But the star of the day was Pauls, who was still smiling well after the meet was over. Her hard work had finally paid off, and she and her teammates were state champions, once again.

“This was a dream state meet,” Pauls said. “Everything worked out like I imagined.”

submitted by TEREZ A. PAYLOR - 2008-11-08 22:08:01