HUNTINGTON – Team glory may have faded for much of the area gymnastics teams after the sectionals shook out last Saturday, but six teams and a handful of individuals are still hoping to perform their way to a state finals berth this Friday as part of the Huntington North Gymnastics Regional.

Elkhart Central was the top dog at the Wawasee Sectional, besting DeKalb and East Noble to claim its fourth team title and had the sectional’s top two beam scores from the duo of Kiara Stabler and Alena Stabler. Central, which also boasts of capable performers in Libby Yeakey and Skiler Reveal, can compete with the big teams, but will need to push a little harder than what it got from its sectional production.

The three teams coming from the Fort Wayne Concordia Sectional – champion Dwenger at 110, Fort Wayne Carroll at 107 and Homestead at 106 – all posted scores that would trump Elkhart’s 103. Dwenger is primed to make a state championship run led by Maria Trahan, who was the vault, floor and all-around champ last weekend. Teammate Andrea Nix added a bars title for the Saints, which placed second at state last March by .625 points to champion Valparaiso.

Fort Wayne Carroll is led by Delaney Garland, whose 37.075 all-around score, in addition to Fort Wayne Concordia’s E’Lycia Early’s 37.725, Heritage’s Rachael Anderson’s 36.475 and Trahin’s 37.4, all were higher than Plymouth’s Cassi Quissell, who led the Wawasee Sectional at 36.425.

There certainly will be a lot of work for the Wawasee Sectional qualifiers to do to make a run to the state finals.

“We have the skills to compete, but we are going to have to hit if we want to keep going,” said Elkhart Central head coach Kathy Krauter. “Who knows. There are so many good gymnasts coming out of Fort Wayne. We’ll go after it, but it’s not going to be easy. At all.”

Two local gymnasts will work at Huntington. Warsaw senior Jazzmine Brown is eligible on bars after her 8.375 qualified fifth. Brown admitted after the sectional she took a little of the mustard off the routine to keep within her limits, and the move paid off.

“When I was told what my scores were, I was a little surprised it was bars and not something else, but I’ll take it,” Brown said. “I got the score I needed. I would have loved to have gone in all-around. I’m pretty confident in my bars routine.”

Wawasee freshman Reagan Atwood did not falter under the bright lights of her first go-round in the sectional. Atwood was runner-up in the all-around scoring at 35.875, topping all competitors on floor for the title at 9.3. Atwood was also third, fourth and third on vault, bars and beam. Wawasee head coach Nika Prather is just thankful for another day to see what her prized rookie can do against some of the big hitters.

“I was just so pleased that she came out in every event and just hit,” Prather said of Atwood. “She did so well, and put a lot of the distractions behind her. She still has event requirements that she hasn’t put in. She has a bars release move. The middle pass on floor she has a harder skill she didn’t do, and she has a back handspring on vault she can do. For (sectional), if it was wobbly, it wasn’t worth it.”

Quissell of Plymouth and Sam Gieseking of Lakeland are the other two athletes from the Wawasee Sectional to advance without a team to Huntington, both working all-around.

The Huntington North Regional will allow the top six individuals in each event and all-around plus the top three teams to advance to the IHSAA Gymnastics State Finals March 21 at Worthen Arena on the campus of Ball State University.