Senior Meg Stephens led Lakeside to its third straight and 19th all-time DeKalb County championship on Thursday. Lakeside finished first with (99.425) ahead of second-place Dunwoody (95.05) and third-place Arabia Mountain (90.575). Stephens swept the field last season in all-around, but faced a challenging field this year with a ton of returning experience.
All six of last year’s top all-around finishers returned and Stephens scored just enough to hold off Dunwoody’s Lizzie Marra and Arabia Mountain’s Camille Cassar by 2.5 points each. Stephen took gold with 35.075 while Marra and Cassar finished at 32.575 to tie for the silver. The victory marked Stephens’ third straight DeKalb all-around title and she becomes just the third gymnast in DeKalb County history to own three all-around titles.
Stephens earned her 11th all-time gold medal with a top score on bars (9.05) and the beam (9.30). Dunwoody’s Virginia Loeb took gold on her floor routine with a score of 9.25 and Arabia Mountain’s Nia Freeman took gold on the vault with an 8.40.