JEFFERSONVILLE — Prior to the start of its season, the Jeffersonville High School gymnastics team talked about its goals for the upcoming season.

One of those aspirations was to qualify for the Columbus East Regional as an entire team.

Mission accomplished.

At last Friday’s Columbus East Sectional, the Red Devils finished in a tie for third place with Center Grove to earn the coveted regional berth. The top three teams at sectional qualified for the regional round.

“It was a goal from the very first practice to get out as a team,” seventh-year Jeff head coach Julie Straight said. “It’s a big accomplishment. In the past, we had injuries come in or just a bad meet. But this time we put it altogether. Things just fell in place. We knew it was an outside possibility and we were focusing on the positive.”

It was the first time in four years that Jeff reached the regional. Red Devil senior Ashley Gallahar felt a great sense of accomplishment making it out of sectional.

“We’ve been struggling so much from the beginning of the year until now that it was a shock,” Gallahar said. “It was just a great feeling, probably the best I’ve ever felt at a meet before. It felt pretty good.”

The Red Devils had to overcome some adversity in their regional quest. At the beginning of the season, two of Jeff’s top gymnasts were dealing with injuries.

Senior Kristen Moore tore the meniscus in her knee during a competitive cheer practice this past fall. The injury came after she tore an anterior cruciate ligament in her knee during gymastics practice last February, which she had surgery on shortly after that.

When the meniscus ailment occurred, doctors advised Moore to not compete this season. But Moore decided to help the Red Devils reach their goal of making regional.

“It’s hard,” said Moore, who is scheduled to have surgery on her knee a week from today. “The hardest thing is not really showing what I’m capable of. But I pushed it out. I wasn’t supposed to do anything. But I didn’t listen to the doctor and came back and did as much as I could for my team.”

In avoiding further aggravation of Moore’s injury, Straight implemented maneuvers for her senior gymnast to perform that put less stress on Moore’s knee. Moore has competed in each individual event this year except the floor exercise.

“We altered her routine so she could do something for the team,” Straight said. “She was still having lots of pain, so we just didn’t do anything for a while. We went back to light stuff and kept her away from anything that was twisting. We made all of her dismounts and her landings as safe as we could. We didn’t want to risk any further injury, so that we could get some more points.”

Gallahar is proud of the way Moore has battled through her injury.

“At the beginning of the season, the whole team thought Kristen was done. We thought for sure that we were not going to score a team score without her,” Gallahar said. “She stepped it up so much. It would start with competing in one event, then going to two and then going to three. We see her every day push through the pain because she wants so bad to win. We’re very, very thankful she came through for us.”

The other Jeff gymnast who fought through an injury at the season’s outset was Shea O’Brien. The sophomore was battling a stress fracture in her wrist.

But O’Brien came through for the Red Devils at sectional, placing sixth in the beam and eighth in the vault.

Straight thinks O’Brien has a shot of advancing to the state finals at regional, with her best opportunity being in the beam. The top six finishers in each event and the all-around will qualify for the state finals.

“Shea has a shot if it all comes together,” Straight said. “She has not done everything she plans to do this weekend. She’ll be doing her best routine.”

Gallahar was the star of the sectional. She became the first Jeff gymnast since Andrea Hatchitt in 1999 to win the all-around competition with a score of 37.2.

Gallahar captured the all-around crown by not winning a single event. She finished second in the floor exercise (9.425), third in the uneven parallel bars (9.4) and fourth in both the balance beam (9.025) and the vault (9.35).

Gallahar has won the all-around title in each of Jeff’s meets this season, except for its final home dual meet on Feb. 22 against No. 2 Columbus North.

“To me, it was a surprise,” Gallahar said. “All season, I’ve been winning all-around. But to me, I looked at those girls as not much competition because I knew going in I was stronger than they were.

“Yet at the sectional, I knew there were going to be some teams there that I did not believe I could compete with. But the difference between myself and them is they competed in one event. Each girl was strong on single events. But I was consistent even though my individual scores was not as high as their scores were. It was a very, very happy experience.”

At regional, Gallahar will try to accomplish another goal — qualifying for state in the all-around.

“To get in that top six would just be overwhelming,” Gallahar said. “I’ve never been to state. I’ve been once with another teammate to watch her compete my freshman year. It is definitely been one of those things that I’ve been reaching out for the past four years and never quite been able to grasp it.

“But it is definitely something that I look forward to and I know I’m capable of achieving if I just do everything I’ve been working for all season.”

Moore says no one deserves to go to state more than Gallahar.

“I’ve never seen someone try so hard and give so much effort,” Moore said.

It will be a challenge for the Red Devils to reach state as a team, as only the top two squads will advance. Straight says Columbus North are the regional favorite and expects Columbus East and Hagerstown to battle for the No. 2 spot.

“Most likely, we’re fighting to get out as many girls as we can,” Straight said.