Elyria Catholic Senior MacKenzie Tweardy spent 15 years as gymnast. A broken wrist her freshman year forced her away from gymnastics. But she found success in two sports where ex-gymnasts often excel. She is a two-time state qualifier in diving where she has earned a scholarship to Purdue, one of the top diving programs in the country. She is also two-time Regional qualifier in the Pole Vault where she just missed qualifying for state. Tweardy still trains for diving during Pole Vault season.

“Pole Vaulting helps with cross training,” she said. “It strengthens my legs. I lift three times a week and the running and jumping help my legs as well.”

Away from her Elyria Catholic teammates for most of the week, Tweardy has formed a strong bond with Avon Lake senior Morgan Srail. Elyria Catholic competes in D-II while Avon Lake is in D-I so they don’t compete during the postseason.

“Morgan is my absolute best friend,” Tweardy said. “We spend a lot of time together so we have gotten really close. We were gymnasts together when we were younger.”

Srail has signed a letter of intent to continue diving at Ohio University.

Midview won twice at the Nordonia Thanksgiving Tournament over the weekend.

The Middies defeated host Nordonia 6-1 and Twinsburg 9-0.

In the win over Nordonia, Blake Sunagel had 26 saves. Austin Steindl and Chris Nagel had two goals each. Jake Lyons and Ty Plas scored once. Against Twinsburg, Sunagel had four saves. Plas had a hat trick while Steindl, James Dubois, Manny Ceja, Nagal, Jake Schneider and Dominic Szpak scored once.

The Avon hockey team began its maiden season at the Canfield High School hockey tournament. Neal Novotny scored the Eagles first ever goal early in the first period. Avon would go on to win its first ever game 4-2.

The Eagles nearly won their second game against CVCA as well. The Eagles scored twice late in the third period to tie the game but lost in the final seconds 6-5.

The Eagles defeated Mooney/Urseline 6-2 in their third game thanks to a hat trick by Cody Schroder.

The championship game was a rematch against Mooney and the Eagles fell 6-3 to finish second.

Welcome to my new Morning Journal Sports high school sports blog. For the Winter Sports Season I am the beat reporter for the sports of Gymnastics, Hockey, Swimming and Bowling. Feel free to send me any information for this blog to zdzurick@MorningJournal.com.