Coach Lisa Sparrow and her Overland gymnastics team walked away from the Class 5A state meet at Thornton High School with a slightly less fulfilling feeling given how some events transpired, but it didn’t prevent the Trailblazers from landing more hardware.
Only Mountain Range — led by individual standout Frankie MacAskill — earned more points than Overland, which had a season-high score of 181.900 to finish as the state runner-up for the sixth time in the past nine seasons (see story, here).
While Overland’s state team was largely comprised of seniors, it was junior Ainsley Renner who led the way. Renner — a Grandview student — finished third in the 5A all-around competition in 2023 and posted a second straight top-five finish as she was fourth with a score of 37.275 that put her just 0.75 of a point behind Denver East’s Lyla Allman for third.
MacAskill finish second and Arvada West’s Layla Petz first. Renner also was the Region 1 and Centennial/Continental League all-around champion.
Renner earned the majority of the individual spots on the 2024 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Gymnastics Team, which is based on state meet results, while she is joined by senior teammate Maia Howell.
— Full 2024 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Gymnastics Team, here
The vault was not an overall team strength of the Trailblazers, but it was a place where Renner shined. She earned a score of 9.550 on the event in the team portion of the state meet, while she followed that up with a 9.425 in the individual event finals to get on the medal podium in fourth place.
Renner’s second-best score of any event at the state meet came on the floor exercise (which was particularly strong for Overland as a whole), as she earned a 9.525 in the individual event finals that earned her another fourth-place medal. She finished with a 9.500 in the team competition.
Renner also grabbed All-Aurora honors on the uneven bars, where she earned her top finish of third. She had a fall late in her routine in the team competition, which dropped her to an 8.900 and into the final spot that qualified for the individual event finals. She made the most of the next chance with a 9.425 to take third.
Howell finished one place behind Renner in the individual event finals of the balance beam, but she was the team’s most consistent on the event in the postseason. She scored 9.450 in the team competition to pace Overland and her 9.375 put her in a tie for fourth place in the individual finals.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports