Columbus North’s Reese Euler is The Republic Gymnast of the Year. She is pictured at The Republic in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, April 3, 2024.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
After a fast start and a little slower finish to her sophomore year, Reese Euler started slow and finished fast this season.
The Columbus North junior placed in the top four in all four events at the state meet and took third in the all-around competition to lead the Bull Dogs to a fourth-place team finish.
“I think it ended really good,” said Euler, The Republic Gymnast of the Year for the second consecutive year. “I got off to a slower start this year than last year. My sophomore year, I started off with higher scores, but then as the year went on, I didn’t score as high. This year, I started a little bit slower, but by the end of the year, around sectional, regional and state, I had my highest scores of the year.”
Euler won the Franklin Central Sectional and finished a close second in the Franklin Central Regional in the all-around. At state, she placed third on the vault (9.575) and floor (9.425) and fourth on the beam (9.525) and tied for fourth on the bars (9.575) on her way to a third-place all-around finish with a season-best 38.1.
“I think at state, just being able to put up my highest all-around of the year and my highest all-around of the years I’ve competed at state was a good feeling, and being able to place on every event also felt really good,” Euler said. “I put it all together this year at state, so I was super happy with that.”
“She kind of kicked it in more toward the end,” North coach Bob Arthur added. “She had her best score on vault and bars at the state meet, and obviously her best all-around score. You can’t hardly ask for much more than that.”
Euler attributed her slow start to missing a few practices while on vacation in late December.
“I went to New York over Christmas Break, so I missed like six practices before the first meet, so I had to play catch-up when I got back from my trip and only had a week of practice to get everything to work out,” Euler said. “I started slow getting into routines and with my stamina for routines, but toward the end of the year, it worked out.”
A gymnast since age 3, Euler turned to competitive cheer with Columbus Power Elite when she was in seventh grade. She returned to gymnastics as a freshman and continued with competitive cheer. In the fall, she was a football cheerleader for the Bull Dogs.
“I decided to do football cheer this year because I had never done school cheer,” Euler said. “I had done competitive cheer, but never school cheer, so I wanted to learn the gameday aspects and just meet new people and try something new. I really enjoyed that.”
Euler hopes to cheer in college at either Kentucky or Alabama.
“I’ve always done gymnastics, and I’ve always known I wanted to cheer in college,” Euler said. “I have this paper at home from Kindergarten or first grade, and it was one of those papers like, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a whatever,’ and I put a UK cheerleader. So I’ve always wanted to cheer at Kentucky or even Alabama. I think gymnastics definitely helps with cheer in body awareness and control and tumbling and everything.”
Euler hopes to make the most of her final year of competitive gymnastics. Both girls that finished ahead of her in the all-around at state are graduating, so she is in position to contend for that, as well as individual event titles, as a senior.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that she has the chance to be an event or multi-event or even all-around champion,” Arthur said. “She’s already proven to herself over the last three years that she can hit 4 for 4 (routines) at the state meet. She’s done that every year so far. She was so close to the all-around championship this year. It’s just a matter of being a little more exact on a couple things, and she could have been there.”
“Even though I didn’t win this year, I have a good perspective of next year,” Euler added. “I have something to work for. I would have liked to win something this year, but now I know I have some things I can improve on and add different things to routines and just go all-out next year and hopefully end up on top.”
The Republic All-Area Gymnastics team:
Reese Euler, Columbus North: The junior won the all-around in the sectional and finished third on the vault, floor and all-around and fourth on the bars and beam at state.
Hannah Perry, Columbus North: The sophomore tied for ninth on the floor, tied for 15th on the vault and finished 19th in the all-around at state.
Emerson Chambers, Columbus North: The freshman finished 23rd in the all-around in the sectional and sixth in the regional and 25th at state on the bars.
Bethany Lewis, Columbus East: The freshman finished seventh on the bars and eighth in the all-around in the sectional.
Honorable mention
Columbus East: Shelby Kendrick. Columbus North: Laney Acton, Ellie McIntier, Arwyn Tian.
