TACOMA — Sarah Ellis didn’t perform the beam in Friday’s individual event finals, but she left the vault beaming.
“Moments like that are priceless,” Ellis said. “They make it all worth it.”
Ellis, a Columbia River High School senior, capped her high school gymnastics career Friday with two top-three finishes in her individual event finals. She tied for second on vault (9.625) and tied for third on floor (9.475).
Oh, that vault routine Friday, a roundoff onto the vault, followed one somersault to the landing pad. Ellis did it while sticking the landing, and the result led a jubilant Ellis into the arms of assistant coach Allison Sparrow and Hayden Sutton before head coach Alicia Green. It reminded her of the similar moment she had sophomore year during the team final on bars, when she then, too, stuck the landing.
“It was really rewarding,” Ellis said.
Worth it, too, after a rough opening day Thursday for Ellis, the 2017 state champion on beam who failed to qualify for Friday’s individual event final, and the Chieftains as a team. Ellis bounced back in a big way Friday.
Her 9.625 score came on near-identical vaults in the competition, and Green called Ellis’ vaults the best of the senior’s career. And funnily enough, it took last-second tinkering to make it happen when the coaching staff elected to make technical adjustments to Ellis’ vault routine this week.
“I almost felt like a bad coach for not doing it earlier,” Green said. “But it paid off … it’s when it counted.”
A vault had never felt as good as that, Ellis said.
“I don’t think I ever have,” she said.
Later, her 9.475 score on floor gave her a third-place tie. Sammamish sophomore Sydney Griswald, the all-around champion who won the title as a ninth-grader, won all four event titles.
Mountain View’s Nina Evans placed fourth on vault (9.550) and tied for sixth on floor (9.425). She also tied for 10th on bars (8.850) as the only Clark County 3A/2A/1A gymnast to compete in three event finals.
GYMNASTICS
At Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall
Friday’s results
3A/2A/1A
Individual finals
Bars (winner, plus locals): 1. Sydney Griswald (Sammamish), 9.625; 10T. Nina Evans (Mountain View), 8.850.
Beam (winner, plus locals): 1. Sydney Griswald (Sammamish), 9.525; 18. Morgan Fitzer (Columbia River), 7.875.
Vault (winner, plus locals): 1. Sydney Griswald (Sammamish), 9.750; 2T. Sarah Ellis (Columbia River), 9.625; 4. Nina Evans (Mountain View), 9.550.
Floor (winner, plus locals): 1. Sydney Griswald (Sammamish), 9.725; 3T. Sarah Ellis (Columbia River), 9.475; 6T. Nina Evans (Mountain View), 9.425; 13. Morgan Fitzer (Columbia River), 9.250.
