Niwot rallies to finish second at Class 4A state championships

The Class 4A state gymnastics meet on Nov. 5 was full of memorable moments for Marisa Purcell and the Niwot gymnastics team, and there's at least one they'd like to forget. When it was all over at Thornton High, the Cougars came away with their best finish in the team competition since 2018, and an important lesson about sticking the landing.

"There isn't anything they could have done differently," Purcell said. "They rocked the beam to end it, and to come out and stick five out of six, I'm speechless right now."

Behind a high score in the balance beam rotation (45.600), the Cougars ended with 178.125 points in the team standings, their best score of the season and enough to capture second place overall, behind Elizabeth (180.725). The Cougars also posted the second-best score of the night in uneven bars (43.475), their first rotation of the meet, and one that has been a weakness in recent seasons.

"We worked really hard on bars, and tonight to be able to put in all the skills that we've been working on was great," Purcell said. "Every girl hit her routine, and we had great scores, so we were super excited coming off the bars to start."

Unfortunately, the excitement was short-lived, as Niwot's next rotation didn't go as expected. In what Purcell called a "game changer," senior Mia Curry, two-time defending Class 4A all-around champion, misjudged her position during her floor routine, and took a brief but costly step out of bounds.

"I put in a lot of power, because I know sometimes on this floor, if I don't get enough power, I will fall," Curry explained later. "And it ended up not going as well as I hoped it would. But I tried to play it off as well as I could with a forward roll, and, you know, sometimes things just don't work out."

That took at least half a point from Niwot's cumulative score, and took Curry out of contention for a third straight individual title, and likely dashed the Cougars' hopes for a team title.

"When you have someone that's very consistent, and doesn't make a lot of mistakes, we have to address that really quickly and explain that you just keep moving forward and you lean on your teammates," Purcell said. "We talked about teamwork, and how we have to come back, and we have two more events, and it's not over and how we fight back."

As Purcell said next, the Cougars went on to "exceed my expectations," particularly when it came to the afore-mentioned balance beam rotation, where five Niwot gymnasts qualified for the individual event finals the following day. First among them was sophomore Grayce Gutierrez, in her second season with the team, but making her first appearance at the Class 4A championships. She led the team with a 9.375 on the beam, the third best on the night, followed closely by Curry with a 9.3. Senior Olivia Sroka (9.1) was 10th, while Ava Silverstein (8.925) and Maeve Flentie (8.9) were 14th and 15th respectively.

Niwot wasn't quite as competitive on the vault rotation, but scored high enough to edge out Palmer Ridge in the final standings. Curry was Niwot's top scorer, with a 9.2, followed by Gutierrez in 26th.

In the All-Around competition, Curry finished sixth overall in the standings, with 36.625 points, while Gutierrez (36.100) was seventh, after finishing 10th overall in bars (8.7) and 12th overall in the floor rotation (9.125). Though not as competitive in vault, the sophomore later pointed to it as one of her best events of the night. For Purcell, it also points to a promising future.

"She showed up, and she did so good. She was solid on beam, and she started flipping only a few weeks ago for vault, and landed those today. I can't wait to see what the future holds for her."

As for Curry, this year's championship meet promised to be an emotional one, no matter what happened on the mat. It was her final high school competition, bringing a highly decorated career to a close, and ending her time with teammates and coaches that she has grown close to over the past four seasons.

"I came off of multiple events, and I was crying," she said. "It's just the end of the greatest experience, and it ended well, too."

Curry admitted she was disappointed by what happened during her floor routine, especially coming so close on the heels of an impressive performance on uneven bars, where she took a gamble on an untested dismount and nabbed her highest score of the year. But the team's performance on the other rotations and their runner-up trophy "overcomes a lot" of the disappointment, she said.

Curry went on to win her second straight Class 4A individual balance beam title on the second day of competition, the fourth individual win of her career. She finishes as one of the most decorated gymnasts in the program's history, as well as one of its most durable. She doesn't see competitive gymnastics in her future, but plans to coach at the youth level. Curry is also planning to try out for Silver Creek's swim and dive team for the upcoming 2021-22 season, after getting some rest.

As for the next season of Niwot gymnastics, Purcell is looking forward to some downtime as well, but hopes to see her gymnasts work on improving their vault skills during the off-season. Though Curry's departure will leave a big hole in the varsity lineup, it's hard to predict what will happen a year from now, she said.

"We've enjoyed the ride we've ridden together, and she's gotten better every year, and was able to enjoy high school. But I think we'll just take it one year at a time and one gymnast at a time."

For complete results, visit CHSAAnow.com. See more photos from the Class 4A state gymnastics championships in our archive gallery here..