The Seymour Owls gymnastics team opened itsseason in grand style Monday night by defeating Owen Valley 98.550-81.500 at Gymnastics Lane.

The results brought a smile to Owls coach Angie Villarreal, who said, “That’s a great score to start the season off. We talked as a team before the competition, Piper (Hawkins) hurt her ankle, so she’s not throwing full out this evening, so we decided to make a team goal of 95, so they hit it. We want to get that above 100 hopefully by the end of the month.”

Hawkins placed first in all-around with a score of 33.550, and she said she was pleased with that score.

“That’s better than I thought I was going to score. My highest score last year was maybe about the same. My beam score (8.7) was amazing for me. I did not fall off. I didn’t get my connection, but other than that, everything went pretty well,” she said.

“My bars was smooth, easy-going,” Hawkins said. “Floor was rougher. I had a fall. I need to work on my floor and vault, for sure, (in practice today). I’m going to try and upgrade some skills on bars and fix my connection on beam. Our team score was great for our first meet.”

Hawkins placed first on beam with a score of 8.7, she tied teammate Kayli Carter for first on bars at 7.750, Mia Dailey was first in floor exercise at 8.550 and Nev Cockerham topped the Owls on vault by placing third at 8.6.

“This evening, we were working through nerves,” Villarreal said. “We clearly had falls on beam. We weren’t throwing full out. They have been working on just getting clean routines that are watered down, meaning we’re not full out by any stretch of the imagination, so it was a really good first meet.”

“Our floor exercise was good,” Villarreal continued. “We’ve got some twisting skills we need to get in in some of the floor routines. Endurance is a thing in the beginning of the season. They need to build their endurance up on floor so that last pass isn’t such a struggle. They had a few slips on bars, so hopefully with some more time in the gym, they can get more confidence in their routines.”

“And honestly, I think the seniors had more nerves this evening than some of my underclassmen,” the head coach said. “I think they put more pressure on themselves than even what I put on them. Vault was great tonight. I’m super happy with vault. Eventually, I’m going to get a couple of them flipping toward the end of the season. Overall, I’d say vault was our best event tonight.”

The Owls will travel to Franklin Central Thursday night.

Seymour results

Seymour 98.550, Owen Valley 81.50

Vault: 3-Nev Cockerham 8.6, 4-Piper Hawkins 8.55, 5-tie Mia Dailey and Marlo Cornn 8.50, 7-Grace Lewis 8.450, 9-Makenzie Combs 8.350, Gillian Bumbleburg 8.6.

Bars: 1-tie Kayli Carter and Hawkins 7.750, 3-tie Cockerham and Dailey 7.00, 5-Lewis 6.8, 6-Combs 6.3, Caitlin Thomasma 4.3, Cornn 4.9, Bumbleburg 4.7.

Beam: 1-Hawkins 8.7, 2-Lewis 8.55, 3-Cockerham 8.05, 4-Dailey 7.45, 7-Cornn 6.9, 9-Carter 6.3.

Floor: 1-Dailey 8.55, 2-Hawkins 8.350, 3-Lewis 8.2, 5-Cockerham 8.050, 7-Combs 7.5.

All-around: 1-Hawkins 33.340, 2-Lewis 32.0, 3-Cockerham 31.70, 4-Dailey 31.50.