This year’s KSHSAA State Gymnastics championship meet saw history be made, both by a few individuals and by the team that has dominated the event for the past four years.

Olathe North won its fourth straight state title with a 112.200 team score, breaking the previous all-time state record of 112.150 set by Derby in 1999.

When Olathe North set its previous best mark of 110.475, which still stands as the fourth best state team score of all time, it was led by Ella Margheim delivering the best all-around score in state history. This Eagles squad had to overcome an Olathe Northwest squad featuring both the two-time reigning all-around champion and this year’s new all-around champion, who just so happened to surpass Margheim’s mark.

Amanda Harrington, head coach for all of the Olathe gymnastics programs, pointed to senior Greer Moyer as being the biggest catalyst for this team making history at state, even as the team entered the year with a relatively young roster.

“I think Greer's leadership really triggered that,” Harrington said. “She's super competitive. She's a competitor and they're all very young, so she really took them under her wing and kind of set the goal for the team, and they just rode along right with her. So that was really awesome to see her lead and kind of showed them the way of Olathe North gymnastics.”

For Moyer, she summed up her feeling about leading this squad to a record-breaking performance with just a few words.

“Absolutely amazing,” Moyer said. “I'm so blessed for us being able to do this again this year and just a really great way to go out for me.

 “I honestly had no expectations for this year. I had no idea who would come out for it because like you said, we did lose a lot of amazing people, but we just replenished it.”
 

Indeed, Olathe North graduated the last two members remaining from the 2021 squad which gave this program its first in what is now a four-year state title streak. Lindsey Ray graduated from a state runner-up finish while Hannah Jensen had finished sixth in the all-around in 2023.

Moyer, who joined the team as a sophomore when the team won its second straight state title in 2022, was also the team’s only state medalist returning from last year’s team. She had finished third in the all-around as the Eagles clinched a three-peat in 2023.

Despite the roster turnover, Moyer led an Olathe North squad which produced at least 105 points in eight of nine events. Those totals, including a 109.675 score at the Sunflower League championship, bested the output put up by the Eagles in the previous season.

However, Olathe North did not win all of its meets as that team had in 2023. 

Olathe Northwest senior Emmy Keller, the two-time reigning state champion, did not compete in the all-around until the fourth meet of the season. At that point, the Ravens started trading victories with Olathe North over the next six events in which both competed.

But then the Eagles won the final two meets heading into state, including that Sunflower League championship, as they scored at least 108 points in five of the team’s final six events this year.

Even as the Eagles were winning, it was the Olathe Northwest duo of Keller and her new sophomore teammate Sophia Beaumont holding the top two spots on the all-around leaderboard at most events, with Beaumont consistently being the No. 1 of the pairing.

Moyer spent this season taking turns with the rest of the top gymnasts on who would battle it out to finish third at those meets.

But Moyer saved her best for last, as has been the Olathe North way over its title reign. Moyer delivered a 9.900 score on the beam, which powered her to a 37.800 all-around score as she pushed past Keller’s 37.750 to become the state runner-up.
 

“I just want to say, I love Emmy so much. We have worked so hard,” Moyer said. “I think for me, (the key was) just being consistent and pushing through everything. Just keeping my skills up and if I have a hard skill, I kept working on it. I don’t go down a skill usually.

“I try to be humble as much as I can, but I worked really, really hard for this, so I think it all paid off.”

Harrington was not surprised by Moyer shining in her final high school competition.

“All I can say is that kid works harder than anyone I have seen in the gym,” Harrington said. “She actually dealt with a back injury all season and pushed through that and just to watch her shine at the end was incredible to see her hard work pay off. 

“She's just a hard worker and she's super passionate and it's gonna take her really far in life.”

Sophomore Ariana Easter provided the Eagles next best all-around mark with her 37.025, which earned her a fifth-place finish. Easter earned a medal in three individual events, including a third-place finish in beam. Easter took sixth in both the vault and floor events. Her performance was all the more impressive consider

“She just started flipping her vaults the meet before this meet because she was not ready to because she had taken such a long break,” Harrington said. “But her goal was to flip her vault and to do giants (a 360 degree rotation on bars) by the end of the season. We always talk about how everything you do is for that last meet. None of the other meets matter as long as you qualify and she really embraced that.”

Sophomore Olivia Noteboom took eighth in the all-around with a 36.675. Noteboom reached the medal stand in beam with a fourth-place finish. She narrowly missed out on earning a medal for floor with her seventh-place mark. She also took ninth in both the vault and bars events.
 

“Olivia Noteboom has really embraced that she is a teammate and that this is a team sport,” Harrington said. “As soon as she embraced that, that's really what made her successful. She stopped focusing on her and realized that she was just here for her team and really took that selfishness out of it, which is really hard to do in a sport like this because it really is such an individual sport and a team sport."

Sophomore Laila Haferland took 10th in the all-around with a 35.725. She earned a fourth-place medal in bars while narrowly missing out on beam where she took eighth.

Sophomore Macie Ray competed in just beam and floor, but nearly left with medals in both events. Ray took sixth in beam with a 9.525 while her 9.225 score in floor landed in eighth for that event.

Freshman Meghanna Shanmugam rounded out the Eagles competitors as she finished 14th in bars and 17th in vault.

“None of them fell on beam, which is incredible,” Harrington said. “All five of them stayed on the beam. They all got nines, they all performed well on floor. I really do feel like all of the North gymnasts really did their best performance today on every single event, which is why they scored that 112 point, whatever it was. 

“They really all shined and they all supported each other and it was awesome to watch.”
 

OLATHE NORTHWEST'S SOPHIA BEAUMONT SETS ALL-AROUND RECORD, JOINS KELLER IN PUSHING RAVENS TO STATE RUNNER-UP TEAM FINISH

Olathe Northwest sophomore Sophia Beaumont swept every event at the KSHSAA State Gymnastics championship meet Oct. 26 at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in Shawnee.

Beaumont won the all-around state title with a score of 39.350, setting the all-time state record. The previous record of 38.413 was set by Olathe North’s Ella Margheim in 2021. 

“I've worked like my whole life for it, so I was probably going to be really sad if it didn't work out in my favor,” Beaumont said. “But it feels good.”

Beaumont said she did not realize she had set the record for all-around until getting asked about it while being interviewed for this story.

“I didn’t actually know I set it, but I’m proud of myself because again, I’ve worked a lot for it,” Beaumont said.

Amanda Harrington, head coach of all the Olathe gymnastics programs, worked both Margheim as well as Beaumont during each one’s record-breaking season taking place in just the last four years.

Harrington was happy that Beaumont also mirrored Margheim’s pairing of individual and team success as they took the high school scene by storm during their first seasons switching over from club gymnastics.

“It was awesome to watch Sophia be successful,” Harrington said. “She's a great kid. She's a great gymnast, but she's an even better teammate. She supports the girls and cares more about them half the time than she does about herself. 

“Obviously she's an incredible gymnast, but I think that's what makes her so successful is she's paying attention to what everyone else is doing.”
 

Beaumont scored perfect 10s in both the vault and beam events, both setting the record for those events. In fact, no other gymnast has ever recorded a perfect 10 in any of the events at the state meet.

It was Beaumont’s goal to get a perfect 10 at the state meet, although she did not have her sights set on achieving that in any specific event.

Beaumont said she did not realize she had set the record for all-around until getting asked about it while being interviewed for this story. She actually views her best event as bars, but her advanced routine is not one where she’s achieving the perfect form that is focus for judges in these high school competitions.

“We've really been working on her shapes the past couple weeks in her skills,” Harrington said. “That's a big thing on bars is they deduct them pretty hard on their shapes and they really do judge it like it's club gymnastics and, and that's fine. We are like, ‘Perfect. We will meet that standard.’ That's our goal.”

Harrington said her teams routinely ask the judges after events what their gymnasts can do better to achieve a higher score.

“(Beaumont) takes those things and that’s what she does in the gym every single day,” Harrington said. “She’s just really been working on her shapes and really working to do whatever the judges say and strive for that perfect score.”

Beaumont was still able to score a 9.550 for bars at state, which gave her a 3-plus point advantage over the state runner-up in Shawnee Mission East senior Claire Rogers.

Beaumont and her senior teammate Emmy Keller tied for first place in floor with 9.800 scores, which tied Margheim’s state record for that event.

Keller, who entered the state meet as the reigning two-time state champion, finished third in the all-around with a 37.750. She also took third as a freshman in 2021, although her all-around score was 36.425 that year. Keller won her first state title with a 37.450 in 2022 before winning her second with a 38.100 last year.
 

In addition to Keller’s record-tying score for floor, she took fourth in vault with a 9.675, fifth in beam with a 9.600 and sixth in bars with a 8.675.

Keller finished her high school gymnastics career as a two-time state champion in the all-around with six gold medals, 16 top-3 finishes and 19 total state medals.

Harrington said it was not always easy for a competitor like Keller to have Beaumont join the team and immediately become the frontrunner for the all-around state title, but she does think that both gymnasts benefited from practicing and competing together.

“Emmy and Sophia were like the dynamic duo together and they supported each other,” Harrington said. “They both do very high level gymnastics for high school gymnastics. So I think having another person in there really, you know, pushed Emmy to work hard in the gym as well.”

Although her senior haul was not nearly as large as she had hoped, Keller did finally get the chance to play a part in bringing home a team trophy. Olathe Northwest took sixth during her freshman year in 2021 and eighth the next season before not competing as a team last season.

With Beaumont alongside Keller, the Ravens were able to produce a state runner-up finish with the team’s 109.700 score.
 

“I was sad we didn’t win, obviously, but I’m really close with a lot of people from North,” Beaumont said. “I think they deserved it. They worked just as hard as us. It was sad not being able to win, especially with it being Emmy’s last year and her not ever getting the chance to win a state title as a team.”

With Beaumont and Keller locked in as the top two gymnasts for most of the season, Harrington and her coaching staff focused on getting the Ravens No. 3 and 4 competitors of junior Regan Atwell and freshman Emrie Felvus to bring up their scores to position this team for a state trophy finish.

“(Atwell) and (Felvus) knew that they also had to perform and they had to work hard so that Olathe Northwest could be up there on the podium,” Harrington said.

Atwell finished with the third-best mark for the Ravens as she scored a 31.375 in the all-around to finish 22nd. Felvus rounded out the team’s scores with a 30.875 to finish 25th.

Beaumont said she’s hopeful that her squad will have some incoming freshmen, or maybe a club crossover like herself, join the team next year to keep them in that state title hunt.
 

ROGERS, PRENDIVILLE ELEVATE SHAWNEE MISSION EAST TO 3RD-PLACE FINISH

Shawnee Mission East took third place in the team race at state, scoring a 107.500. The Lancers were led by senior Claire Rogers and junior Andi Prendiville, who both reached the medal stand for the all-around.

“I'm just so proud of us,” Prendiville said. “We've worked so hard the last three, four years — one year for some people — and we really just put it out there for everyone and put on our best show today and we couldn't have done any better.”

Rogers, who Prendiville gave a nod to with her “one year” line, scored a 37.425 in the all-around to earn a fourth-place finish. Rogers had previously competed in club gymnastics before making the switch this year and helping elevate the Lancers into the state title conversation.

Rogers had originally chosen club gymnastics because she wanted to compete year around as opposed to the short high school season. But Rogers decided last year that instead of working toward competing in gymnastics when she goes to college, she committed to Augustana University as a member of its Women’s Acrobatics and Tumbling program.

With that switch, and schoolmates like Prendiville, seniors Ashley Freund and Zoe Chaney putting in their recruiting pitches for Shawnee Mission East gymnastics team, Rogers decided to give in and join the Lancers squad this year.

“I think everything just fell into place for a reason,” Rogers said. “It just made sense and I'm so glad I did this. I don't regret quitting club for this.”
 

In addition to her all-around medal, Rogers also finished as the state runner-up in bars with 9.175 while taking third in the vault with 9.725. Rogers landed in 18th for floor.

Prendiville took sixth in the all-around with a 36.800 score. She also finished as the state runner-up in vault with a 9.875, which is the second best all-time score for this event behind only Beaumont’s perfect score. Prendiville narrowly missed out on earning a medal for bars with her 8.550 score, while finishing 11th in beam and 12th in floor.

Prendiville finished third in vault last season, but falls during her other events prevented her from producing a high enough all-around score to bring home any other medals.

“I had a really rough state meet last year,” Prendiville said. “Just make it through the whole meet without any falls or anything bad happening and just doing it for my team really made me so happy.”

Freund finished 19th in the all-around with a 32.200, while just missing out on a medal for vault as she took ninth with a 8.950. Junior Phoebe Kaneda took 24th in the all-around with 30.950. Kaneda’s top finish was landing in 15th for vault with a 8.800 score. Chaney’s best result was finishing 24th for bars. 

Although Rogers, Freund and Chaney will graduate, Prendiville and Kaneda will return alongside Kara Parrett as all three enter their senior seasons. Prendiville also feels like there are a few other club gymnasts at Shawnee Mission East who these Lancers can convince to join their ranks next season.

“This is definitely a good pitch,” Prendiville said, referring to the team’s third-place state trophy. “We got third this year, imagine what we can do next year with a few more girls from club.” 
 

BEST OF THE REST

Olathe East moved up one spot from its finish in the team race last year by finishing in fourth place this season. Sophomore Kailynn Sparks, a newcomer who switched over from club gymnastics, led the team as she took seventh place in the all-around with a score of 36.700. Sparks earned a medal for floor, scoring a 9.625 to take fifth. She narrowly missed out on reaching the medal stand in vault with her 9.300 score landing her in seventh place. Sparks also finished 10th in both bars and beam.

Junior Olyvia Tryban finished 12th in all-around with a 34.850, with her best individual event finish being seventh in beam with a 9.500. Senior Gabby Meredith finished 17th in the all-around.

Olathe South finished fifth with a 101.975 score. Junior Mia Thompson, freshman Savannah Roberts and junior Keira Spence took 14th, 15th and 16th respectively in the all-around. Thompson also had the trios top individual event finish by taking eighth in the vault with 9.200 score.

Shawnee Mission Northwest landed in sixth with a 99.100. Junior Kay Blake delivered the team’s top finish by taking 18th in the all-around with a score of 33.175. Her best score was an 8.425 in the bars to take 10th. The team’s best finish in an individual event was senior Celia Cohen finishing eighth in the bars with 8.500.

Newton scored a 96.350 to finish seventh in the team race. Freshman Ella Baier and senior Abby Steinert took 20th and 21st respectively in the all-around. Baier finished 20th in the bars while Steinert did the same in vault. Sophomore Coe’lina Mosqueda and junior Allison Boese also earned 20th-place finishes in individual events. Mosqueda did so for floor while Boese achieved that for bars.

Lawrence Free State rounded out the team scores with a 90.025. Senior Anne Cross delivered the team’s top finish by taking 23rd in the all-around. Her best mark in an individual event was 19th for floor.

Olathe West’s juniors Ilyse Haynes and Micah Vance competed as the only two representatives for the Owls. Haynes took ninth in the all-around with a 35.975 score while Vance finished 11th with a 35.100. Haynes earned a third-place medal for bars with a 9.100. Vance eighth in beam with 9.475 and tied for ninth in floor with 9.150.

Lawrence senior Provi Fowler was the lone representative for the Lions. Fowler finished 13th in the all-around with a 34.750. Her best result for an individual event was tying for ninth in floor with a 9.150.