The emotion began to set in for Kelly Stone right after she stuck the final landing of her gymnastics career.
The senior had just finished her routine on the uneven bars, capping off a Class 5A state meet that saw Green Mountain claim its second state championship in three years. Stone, who also won an individual title on the balance beam, walked off the mat and hugged her coaches as the tears began to flow.
“I was so honored,” said Stone, who plans to focus on swimming in college. “Getting it once in a lifetime is something that most people never do. Getting it twice, and in my senior year, it was like the perfect way to move on to bigger and better things.”
The Rams barely held off Overland on Friday, Oct. 31, to win the team championship. Green Mountain earned 182.60 points, with the Trailblazers coming in at 181.325. Bear Creek, which won the 5A title in 2007, took eighth with 174.4 points.
“It feels just as good. It feels just as special,” said Sandy Patterson, who shares the coaching duties at Green Mountain with her husband, Dan. “Taelore (Fehr) and Kelly are the only two back from when we won in 2006, so we had a whole new group basically, but they’re an amazing group of girls.”
Stone has been the catalyst to Green Mountain’s success over the past four seasons. The Wheat Ridge senior joined the Rams because the Farmers don’t have a gymnastics program, and has helped the team to a pair of titles and two second-place finishes.
After placing fourth in the all-around competition Friday — Doherty’s Britnee Martinez ended the three-year reign of Loveland’s Hannah Bower — Stone was just as impressive Saturday evening. She earned the second individual title of her career by scoring 9.575 on the beam, and placed in the top five on the floor exercise, vault and uneven bars.
Never one to focus on herself, Stone put the team title above all else.
“Doing well individually is nice,” she said. “Doing well as a team is even better, being able to share it.”
Freshman Mackenzie Comstock was the other driving force for the Rams, taking ninth in the all-around with a score of 37.225. She also placed third on the beam and fourth on the vault.
Comstock didn’t join the team until after the season had already started, but quickly made up for lost time. She won the Broomfield Invitational title early in October, but admitted she was nervous heading into her first state meet.
Things went much more smoothly Saturday.
“I think I did a lot better,” Comstock said. “My vault was a lot better and my beam was stuck, so that was good.”
Fehr, the only other senior, placed 16th in the all-around and joined Stone and Comstock in the finals on the beam. Sophomore Kaitlyn Bodkin was 21st and junior Kirstin Boyer was 30th. Junior Brandi Low and sophomore Lauren Garcia also competed for the Rams, who came into the season unranked and were hurt by the transfer of senior Alie Bowen.
“It was hard losing Alie, because she was a big part of our team,” Stone said. “I just think we got stronger from it. At the beginning of the year, not even being ranked, I just think it kind of motivated us to be like ‘Green Mountain’s still here.’”
Katilyn Olson led Bear Creek with a 22nd-place finish in the all-around, up three spots from last year. The senior took part in Saturday’s finals on the floor exercise but didn’t place in the top six.
“She had kind of a rough night (Friday),” Bears coach Michelle Chalkey said.