Sarah Ellis got past the frustration.
She overcame the injury.
She led her team to state.
She qualified for finals.
All of that made her gymnastics season a success.
Then, on the final day of the Class 3A/2A state meet, the junior from Columbia River High School won the championship on the balance beam.
“Winning was just icing on the cake,” she said.
Ellis endured several emotional swings in the three-month high school gymnastics season. Actually, the down times started with a partially torn ligament in her right ankle, suffered in club gymnastics, just before the Chieftains started practicing for the winter.
By February, though, she earned medals in two individual events at state — including that title — and finished 11th in the all-around. With that, she has been named The Columbian’s All-Region gymnast of the year for the second consecutive season.
Ellis still looks back in disbelief, considering the start of the campaign.
“I was so upset. ‘This ruins everything,'” she said to herself back in November. “I was just saying that because I was really sad.”