Grapevine girls gymnastics take district title, head to state

The Grapevine girls gymnastics team completed the Region IV meet as the runner-up and will now compete as a team at the state meet on May 1-2.

The Lady Mustangs went into the regional meet as district champions, with a number of Grapevine gymnasts taking top honors.

Also at the district meet, Colleyville Heritage’s girls finished in fourth place. The Lady Panthers finished out of the top three spots at regionals and did not qualify for the state meet.

At the district meet, Grapevine’s Demetria “Demi” Pursely was first in the All Around competition in addition to taking first in Vault and also collected second place in the Bars and Floor and third on Beam.

Erin Engelhardt was fourth in the All Around, but also finished third in Vault and fourth on Beam, while teammate Carley Heck was fifth place All Around and third on Floor.

Other Grapevine girls on the team include Mackenzie Megellas and Emily Stoller.

At the regional meet, Grapevine finished behind perennial gymnastics power, L.D. Bell, which is also a larger Class 6A school.

Bell scored 230.425 while Grapevine finished with 224.20.

When the Lady Mustangs got to the regional meet held at Trinity High School, they didn’t disappoint.

Pursley finished second in the All Around. She was second the Beam and Floor competition.

Englehardt was 10th and Heck was 11th in the All Around. Stoller finished 17th.

Heritage girls in the All Around competition were Brenna Currie, 18th; Jacie Acker, 31st; Rachel Parjarillo, 33rd and Sara Strickland, 34th.

Grapevine and Heritage are under the direction of first-year head coach Christine Whitten.

Whitten, a Grapevine grad who now teaches at Heritage but oversees both programs, said the two schools work out together but compete separately. She’s also been pleased with what she’s seen out of her squads already.

“Coming in as a first-year coach, I didn’t know what to expect,” Whitten said. “But they have exceeded expectations. They are great students and girls, as well. I’ve been more than pleased.”

Whitten said there are only two boys on each school’s teams, so qualifying as a team isn’t possible, but they enjoy the competition and experience.

The Grapevine and Heritage programs also have to compete in the same region with programs such as Bell and the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw schools, which have had historically strong gymnastics programs.

The Grapevine girls will now prepare for the state meet, which will be held at Saginaw’s Chisholm Trail High School.

The state completion will be streamed live via the Texas High School Gymnastics Championships website, at www.thsgca.org/state2015.

This story was originally published April 20, 2015 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Grapevine girls gymnastics take district title, head to state."