For The Tribune

CONNERSVILLE

Kellsye Warner had a chance to compete in the Gymnastics State Finals as an individual last season.

This year, she’s taking the rest of the Seymour team with her.

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The Owls came through with a 102.05 in Saturday’s Connersville Regional to earn the third and final qualifying spot to the state meet, which will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Ball State’s Worthen Arena. Seymour will be making its first trip to state as a team since 2012.

“It was very exciting because I experienced this last year, but I just went my myself,” Warner said. “So going as a team this year, I can’t wait for them to experience this with me. I’m hoping for a lot of fun.”

Warner played a major role in the Owls third-place regional finish. The senior placed third on the beam with a 9.525 and sixth on the floor with a 9.2 on her way to a ninth-place all-around finish with a 35.125.

Junior Avery DeHart also had a big day, placing fourth on the beam with a 9.125 and 18th in the all-around with a 33.1. Her beam performance came right after she injured her foot when she hit it on the lower bar while swinging from the high bar on her bars routine.

Seymour scored only a 22.475 on the bars, but bounced back to close with a 27.025 on the beam.

“Bars was very rough for us today,” Seymour coach Angie Mellencamp said. “It definitely shows that we have not been any other bar sets this year besides double-wide spread raised bars. But the girls knew they needed to come in and be tight on their big skills between the bars, and since they weren’t, they hit the low bar with their feet, which caused the falls today.”

Nicole Elmore did only two events, but finished 12th on the floor with an 8.8 and 16th on the beam with an 8.375. Brett Kleber took 17th on the vault with an 8.45 and Ali DeHart was 20th on the beam with a 7.375.

The Owls began the meet with a 26.8 on the floor. They then scored a 25.75 on the vault before going to the bars and beam.

“We left so many points on the floor,” Mellencamp said. “The girls just had I think a lot of heightened nerves coming into the meet today, and being in a brand new location I think kind of threw them off a little bit. But they have to learn to deal with the environment that we’re competing in.”