The Lawrence High gymnastics squad was not able to utilize the top all-around performance by sophomore Mallory West to walk out of its home gym as the Sunflower League champs.

LHS fell to Olathe East by one point, due in part to a poor outing on the vault.

“We tried a couple of (new) things on vault, so we hope that we’ll have before regionals and state,” said Lions coach Kathy Johnson about the 25.85 accumulated by the team on vault. “We have a couple that are trying harder vaults so that their start value is higher so that when they do stick it they have the ability to score high and that’s to kind of help that team score overall.

“But that one event we kind of need to bring up so that we can have all our scores kind of where we want them.”

West had the top LHS score on the vault with a 9.175, which put her fifth in the standings.

Her best performance, however, came on the beam, which had been a concern of hers earlier in the season.

Lawrence High's Mallory West launches onto the vault at the Sunflower League gymnastics meet at LHS. The Lions finished second as a team to Olathe East in Thursday's event.

“Beam was really exciting,” said West of her first-place 9.625 performance. “I was just more confident today and really just performed well.”

Beam was actually the best event for LHS as a whole. The Lions amassed 28.30, pushing them closer to O-East before their final event.

“Lawrence High did an awesome job on beam, obviously,” Johnson said. “Their three scores that counted were just super.”

Free State also had a solid night on the beam, helping the Firebirds to a fourth-place finish overall.

“We still have one gymnast that has an ankle injury. (Laura Devlin) only did two events tonight, so we’re missing a person,” said Johnson, who also coaches the Firebirds squad.

Johnson said consistency would be key for FSHS as it will compete in a different regional this year.

“Free State should have an equal opportunity and a good chance to qualify (for state) down in their new regional,” Johnson said.

It may be a little more difficult for the Firebirds at regionals though, as they will be without their top performer from the league meet.

Jennifer Pogge, who finished seventh in the all-around, will have to compete for her own school of Perry-Lecompton.

• 6Sports video: Lions place second in gymnastics meet (10-20-05)

“I put it all together on bars and beams tonight. I was really proud of myself. I just wish I could have done that all-around,” said Pogge of her second-place finish on the bars and third-place finish on the beam. “But I’ll learn enough and come back next week … and I expect four out of four. I expect to make everything, and put it all together – what I’ve been working all season at.”

The Lions on the other hand will stay in their same regional and will face Olathe East again next Tuesday. However, they are not solely focused on the Hawks.

“Our goal at regionals is to just have a solid meet and qualify for state,” Johnson said. “And if that solid meet means that we beat Olathe East, great.

“But the final state meet is where they want that to count. They want to return (to state) and see if they can do the same thing they did last year.”