By Angela Watts
DigitalSports.com
(Look below the story for dozens of video highlights from Thursday’s meet.)
It looked for much of Thursday night’s Concorde District gymnastics championships at Centreville High that everyone in the room had a split-personality.
Herndon coach Keith Naquin, whose wife, Maureen, is Chantilly’s head coach, wore a Charger purple long-sleeve turtle neck under his Hornet red T-shirt.
And then there was a top W.T. Woodson assistant coach, whose team competed at the Liberty District meet earlier in the week, assisting two different teams Thursday night, wearing a long-sleeve Oakton T-Shirt over top of a short-sleeve Fairfax one. She shed her top layer depending on which team was on an event.
Even meet favorites Chantilly and Herndon, who train together during the regular-season, got in on the action. When they arrived at Centreville for warm-ups there was a large sign strung across the back of the gym to welcome each of the league’s seven gymnastics teams. But the Charger and Hornet gymnasts did a little re-arranging, combining their two signs into one that read, simply, “HERNTILLY.”
And when Crank That by Soulja Boy came blazing over the speakers while all seven teams were cleaning up in preparation for the post-meet awards ceremony, nearly every gymnast in the place was instantly converted into a hip-hop dancer. A few minutes later — when the equipment was all put away — it came as no surprise when a quick version of Cotten-Eyed Joe turned them all into country line dancers instead.
It seemed the only person whose identity never wavered Thursday was Herndon sophomore sensation Maria Hayden, who earned a first-place medal on each of the four event apparatus en route to a convincing win in the all-around competition. The only individual to share any of those honors was Chantilly junior Elly Taura, who tied Hayden on the vault.
“It’s a really good feeling,” said Hayden, who repeated as the bars, floor and all-around champion but won her first titles on the beam and vault. “I was really happy because last meet was not my best meet, and so it’s really good to come back strong from that.”
Hayden’s solid performance — and quality scores by the Hornets’ Alana Henderson and Lauren Sullivan — also helped lead Herndon to its second consecutive team crown. And considering both the history of the district meet and the fact that Hayden is an underclassman, it seems reasonable to go ahead and pencil the Hornets in as the favorite for next season as well.
Since 1998, every winner of the Concorde District meet has successfully completed a three-peat before relinquishing the title. Chantilly started the trend with a three year sweep from 1998-2000, Centreville took over the reigns from 2001-03 and Oakton took its turn from 2004-06.
“This was a really big team effort for us,” Hayden said. “We were all cheering each other on because we wanted this so bad. We wanted to repeat our championship from last year.”
TEAM SCORES
1. Herndon 145.050
2. Chantilly 143.100
3. Oakton 137.775
4. Robinson 137.225
5. Centreville 130.750
6. Farifax 110.525
7. Westfield 67.125
INDIVIDUAL EVENTS
All-Around
1. Maria Hayden, Herndon, 38.75; 2. Elly Taura, Chantilly, 37.325; 3. Katherine Canales, Oakton, 36.50; 4. Alana Henderson, Herndon, 36.20; 5. Lauren Sullivan, Herndon, 36.00; 6. Katie Guryansky, Chantilly, 35.725; 7. Mariah Rivera, Centreville, 35.65; 8. Kelly Pierson, Centreville, 35.50; 9. Lyndsey Saunders, Chantilly, 35.125; 10. Alexa Kopach, Fairfax, 35.025.
Bars
1. Maria Hayden, Herndon, 9.8; 2. Katherine Canales, Oakton, 9.3; 3. Alana Henderson, Herndon, 9.175; 4. Elly Taura, Chantilly, 9.1; 5. Lyndsey Saunders, Chantilly, 9.050; 6. Kelly Pierson, Centreville, 9.0; T7. Lauren Sullivan, Herndon, 8.85; T7. Mariah Rivera, Centreville, 8.85; 9. Katie Guryansky, Chantilly, 8.7; 10. Shannon Rubenstein, Herndon, 8.6.
Beam
1. Maria Hayden, Herndon, 9.6; 2. Lauren Sullivan, Herndon, 9.3; 3. Elizabeth Gallop, Robinson, 9.075; 4. Kelly Pierson, Centreville, 9.0; 5. Elly Taura, Chantilly, 8.975; 6. Katie Guryansky, Chantilly, 8.90; T7. Jessi Marco, Robinson, 8.75; T7. Mariah Rivera, Centreville, 8.75; T9. Katie Haynie, Oakton, 8.7; T9. Lani Kroese, Chantilly, 8.7.
Floor
1. Maria Hayden, Herndon, 9.75; 2. Elly Taura, Chantilly, 9.65; 3. Alana Henderson, Herndon, 9.575; 4. Mariah Rivera, Centreville, 9.45; 5. Katherine Canales, Oakton, 9.35; 6. Lauren Sullivan, Herndon, 9.30; 7. Alexa Kopach, Fairfax, 9.15; 8. Lyndsey Saunders, Chantilly, 9.025; T9. Ashley Masterson, Robinson, 9.0; T9. Katie Haynie, Oakton, 9.0.
Vault
T1. Maria Hayden, Herndon, 9.6; T1. Elly Taura, Chantilly, 9.6; T3. Katie Guryansky, Chantilly, 9.2; T3. Katherine Canales, Oakton, 9.2; 5. Alexa Kopach, Fairfax, 9.1; 6. Ashley Masterson, Robinson, 8.95; 7. Lani Kroese, Chantilly, 8.925; 8. Alana Henderson, Herndon, 8.9; 9. Kaliah Lewis, Robinson, 8.75; 10. Lyndsey Saunders, Chantilly, 8.75.
Email: awatts@digitalsports.com
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