(Photo: Jordan Kartholl / The Star Press)
NEW CASTLE, Ind. — Samantha Ward remembers how she and her teammates felt Monday, still sore and bruised, not worrying about where they'd place but grateful they could compete at all.
Just two days earlier, the bus Ward and her New Castle gymnastics team was riding to an IHSAA regional at Columbus East crashed. According to a Facebook post by Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers, it was involved in a head-on collision with a Ford SUV. And what had seemed prior to Ward just like any other morning, one filled with excitement and nerves for regionals, turned into a period of uncertainty.