Five NHS Gymnasts make state finals

Now in her eighth year as Niwot High School girls' gymnastics coach, Marisa Purcell and her assistant coach, Maddi York, took a young squad to the 4A gymnastics state championships in Thornton where they finished third, but only seven tenths of a point from second place.

After graduating six seniors in the spring of 2022, this team of mostly freshmen and sophomores had to first learn to be a team in a sport that traditionally emphasizes individual performances prior to entering high school.

As a high school team, the team score is a result of adding together the individual scores of the top five or six of the team participants in an event.

Kylee Schlepp led the charge for the young Cougars taking home the gold in vault with a tremendous score of 9.725, which earned her a place on the Class 4A All-State team. Sophomore Maeve Flentie took eighth in all-around and posted a respectable sixth-place finish in bars and seventh place in beam. Her performance put her on the Class 4A All-State second team.

Niwot's other State 4A finalists included sophomore Claire Vardas who took tenth in beam, freshmen Isabella Foster who placed 15th in bars, and Lilly O'Neill who took fifth in beam.

The young team is in a position to be even stronger next season. Other bright spots for the team included Grace Summers, and Ashlyn Crall, who took first at All-Around JV league.

Coach Purcell is excited to build on a great year in which the team was able to develop "on their own time, always moving forward and finishing strong, jumping three and a half points at State versus the team's season meet average." With this kind of success NHS Girls Gymnastics has lots to look forward to in 2023.