Lady Raiders seeking 21st state gymnastics title

The Hurst L.D. Bell Lady Raiders will be out to successfully defend their state gymnastics championship and going for a 21st in team history.

The Euless Trinity Lady Trojans are still riding high from their rally at the recent Region IV Meet.

And both had to stage comebacks to reach their goal.

“The fight I have been looking for in them came out,” Trinity coach Rebecca Shaw said after her team rallied on the final day to earn a third-place finish and a berth at this weekend’s Texas Gymnastics Coaches Association State Meet in Odessa.

Meanwhile, the Lady Raiders overcame a bout with the flu that went through the team, including coach Debbie Williams. Nonetheless they won regionals and emerged as the favorites this weekend.

The Lady Trojans were in fourth place after the compulsory round with a score of 112.550, .325 points behind Grapevine. They then scored a season-high in the optional round (109.050), earning their spot at state.

“I couldn’t have been more proud of all of my girls, they all did their part,” Shaw said.

Rebecca Stricklin scored a career high optional all-around score of a 37.95 and also a career high optional beam score of 9.650, ending up in fifth place all-around. She tied for third in balance beam, tied for fourth in vault, tied for fifth in floor, and tied for fourth in uneven bars.

“Out of my eight competitors, we used six of their scores to make up our team score,” Shaw said. “it was a group fight to get to third, and I can’t be more happy with their performance.”

Bell’s Alexis Martin was the regional all-around champion, while teammate Kyleigh Prather placed third. In other events, Prather was third in vault and Martin tied for fourth, Kaitlin Hornsby won balance beam and Martin was second, Martin won floor and Desiray Rodriguez was second with Prather tied for fifth, and Martin won uneven bar with Prather second.

“The girls did a great job at regionals,” Williams said. “We will work on fine tuning a few things and try to keep everyone healthy.

“State is always hard to predict. Anything that has happened going into state means absolutely nothing now. It all depends on how good you are those two days.”

Williams said she stresses to each of her teams that the entire season is about more than state.

“I try to emphasize that it is a team effort and there is more to the year than just that one weekend,” she said. “The journey getting there is really what it is ultimately all about. Hopefully they will look back on this season with fond memories.”

Boys

Though Bell and Trinity do not have teams that reached state, both will have competitors in Odessa.

Trinity finished fourth at regionals and Bell was fifth.

The Blue Raiders will have Adam Tice, Isaiah Bushman and Cody Burnett competing. Trinity will be represented by Aahil Ali, Jacob Cunningham, Christian Burnett and Zachary Harris.

The Trojans were 0.2 points out of a qualifying berth.

“The team fought to the very end and I could not be more proud of them,” Trinity coach Travis Coulborn said.

“We are going to continue to to clean up their routines and focus on consistency so the guys can have the best opportunity to place at the state meet.”

Aahli was seventh all-around at regionals, ninth in parallel bars, and 10th in pommel horse, rings (tied) and horizontal bar (tied). Cunningham was sixth all-around, third in pommel horse and 10th in parallel bars and horizontal bar (tied). Burnett placed seventh on floor (tied) and 10th in horizontal bar (tied), and Harris tied for seventh in vault.

Tice was second all-around, tied for first in vault, second in parallel bar, third in horizontal bar, and tied for seventh in rings. Bushman tied for 10th in floor and Burnett tied for seventh in vault.

“If they put together two good days in Odessa, they should come home with some medals,” Bell coach Sean Sims said.

As for regionals, Sims said, “Our youth showed. Eighty percent of my competitors were freshmen or sophomore and Day 2 of the meet was pretty rough for those guys.

“Unfortunately for us, we’re in the hardest region in the state. We have the 11th ranked team in the state, and we’re staying home.

“We scored about 10 points better than we did at regionals last year. Our goal was 320, and we were close. And 320 would have made it. But we were just a little short. But it bodes well for next year.”

This story was originally published April 26, 2017 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Lady Raiders seeking 21st state gymnastics title."