THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502030218
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 26 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JULIE GOODRICH, CLIPPER SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
When Great Bridge takes the floor Wednesday at Western Branch High School, the Wildcats will be gunning for their ninth consecutive Southeastern District gymnastics title.
Great Bridge has dominated the competition in the three regular season quad meets, placing first in the team competition each time.
The district champion, along with the top eight gymnasts in the four events - floor exercise, balance beam, uneven parallel bars, and vault - will advance to the Eastern Region competition Saturday, Feb. 18 at Warwick High in Newport News.
The Wildcats' biggest advantage over Deep Creek, Western Branch, and Churchland in the district tournament is depth. Nadia Amen is back on track after a shaky start, winning the all-around title in the meet at Deep Creek. In the last regular season meet at Great Bridge, Amen placed second in floor, beam, vault, and all-around.
Amen's teammate, junior Suzanne Humphrey, is nearly unbeatable on the beam and recently earned a 9.4 in that event, the highest score ever given on the beam in district competition.
Great Bridge has a solid corps of gymnasts that score points in the individual events, including Nancy LeMaster, Suzanne Lingo, Kelly Turner, and Erin Dyer.
If the Wildcats have performed up to everyone's expectations, the surprise of the season has been Deep Creek freshman Laura Bryan. Bryan was edged out of the all-around title in the first meet by Humphrey and later by Amen, but she came back in the final meet of the season to place first in the bars, vault, floor, and all-around events.
Bryan is backed up by April Magill, Lori Tempesco, and Mariel Brown.
The host Bruins will look for strong performances from all-around gymnasts Kim Sykes, JoBeth Willey, and Erica Chinn.
Churchland's Kelly Hughes could qualify on the bars. Other prospects for the Truckers include Becky Ringer and Jackie Bales. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Great Bridge gymnast Nadia Amen is back on track after a shaky
start, winning the all-around title in a meet at Deep Creek.
by CNB