Last year’s GHSA gymnastics championships ended with West Forsyth dethroning Buford after a three-year reign. On Friday night at Ola High School in Henry County, the Wolverines won their second team state title in a row. West Forsyth held off Buford by only 1.124 points to win the 2017 title, but this time the Wolverines bested second-place North Oconee by 3.85 points to secure back-to-back titles, the first two team championships in the school's history.
West Forsyth senior Aundria Crittenden, who claimed first place in floor exercise last year, placed second with a score of 9.9, and teammate Hallie Stocker placed fifth with a score of 9.55. Crittenden also took third place on balance beam with a score of 9.1, and Natalie Force placed fourth on the vault with a score of 9.4 to help her team repeat as champion.
“I think the biggest thing is, it’s for our school, being the first team [in school history] last year to have ever won a championship, and to do it back-to-back," said West Forsyth head coach Ashley Owen after the meet. “This year we talked about being legendary. This is something that will go down in history for West Forsyth. It’ll probably be a long time before we're able to get a back-to-back title at this school. Its huge, honoring and exciting. It’s amazing.”
Helping the Wolverines to the championships were sophomore Ella Castellanos and last year's all-around champion Sienna Schreiber, a junior, neither of which competed in last week's state preliminary rounds. With a new GHSA rule passed earlier this month removing the requirement that gymnasts compete in prelims in order to participate in the state meet, both gymnasts were able to perform on Friday.
Owen gave credit to her entire roster for the repeat state title.
“I had two girls compete this year in two or more events that were alternates last year," Owen said. "They made such excellent strides. Natalie Force and Hallie Stocker have both come so far from last season alone. It was awesome to bring those girls in this year to compete at state.”
North Oconee’s Savannah Schoenherr claimed the all-around title with first-place finishes in all four events. At the 2017 state meet, Schoenherr placed top three in only one event but fought through injuries during the season. Healthy this time around, Schoenherr excelled.
“I wanted to make a name for myself, and also for North Oconee,” said Schoenherr. “I’ve been training hard and this is a huge goal for me. I’ve been training five days a week, 20 hours a week. ... This means so much to me. I want to make North Oconee look good, and my team.”
Schoenherr placed first with a 9.95 on vault, a 9.7 on uneven bars, a 9.75 on beam and a perfect 10 on floor exercise. Her total of 39.4 bested second-place Brianna Greenlow’s (Lambert) score of 38.525 and was .2 more than Schreiber’s winning score from 2017.
2018 GHSA Gymnastics Championships at Ola High School
Team Results
1. West Forsyth (113.40) 2. North Oconee (109.55) 3. Buford (107.32) 4. Etowah (105.90) 5. Milton (104.90) 6. Carrollton (101.85)
All-Around
1. Savannah Schoenherr, North Oconee (39.40) 2. Brianna Greenlow, Lambert (38.525) 3. Elyssa Roberts, Tift County (36.95) 4. Maylen Pulliam, North Oconee (36.175) 5. Kelsey Schulman, Buford (35.8) 6. Cabbie Williamham, Carrollton (34.875)
Uneven Parallel Bars
1. Savannah Schoenherr, North Oconee (9.7) 2. Brianna Greenlow, Lambert (9.65) 3. Kelsey Schulman, Buford (9.5) 4. Elyssa Roberts, Tift County (9.375) 5. Maylen Pulliam, North Oconee (9.35) 6. Jordan Yates, Colquitt County (9.25)
Vault
1. Savannah Schoenherr, North Oconee (9.95) 2. Brianna Greenlow, Lambert (9.7) 3. Elyssa Robert, Tift County (9.625) 4. Natalie Force, North Forsyth (9.4) 5. Kelsey Schulman, Buford (9.4) 6. Rylee Watson, Tift County (9.35)
Balance Beam
1. Savannah Schoenherr, North Oconee (9.75) 2. Brianna Greenlow, Lambert (9.4) 3. Aundria Crittenden, West Forsyth (9.1) 4. Molly Froman, Etowah (8.7) 5. Elyssa Roberts, Tift County (8.55) 6. Maylen Pulliam, North Oconee (8.5)
Floor Exercise
1. Savannah Schoenherr, North Oconee (10.0) 2. Audria Crittenden, West Forsyth (9.9) 3. Brianna Greenlow, Lambert (9.775) 4. Maylen Pulliam, North Oconee (9.625) 5. Haley Stocker, West Forsyth (9.55) 6. Elyssa Roberts, Tift County (9.40)
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