The Becker Bulldog girls gymnasts headed back to state Friday! Last Saturday, the Bulldogs traveled down the road  to Big Lake High School to compete with nine other area teams in the Section 7A Tournament. Becker, along with Sartell-St. Stephens and North Branch were all considered favorites heading into the Saturday meet.

 

By just .35-ths of a point, the Bulldogs beat out Sartell-St. Stephen for the section title. Monticello, surprisingly, was also right in the thick of things and finished just .55-ths out of first.

 

Team scores: 1).  Becker, 141.875; 2).  Sartell, 141.525; 3).  Monticello, 141.325; 4).  North Branch, 141.15; 5).  Big Lake, 139.35; 6).  RPHF, 133.075; 7).  Zimmerman, 130.15; 8).  Chisago Lakes, 125.575; 9).  Sauk Rapids, 121.775; 10).  Princeton, 119.625.

 

Becker’s first event was floor and to Coach Jen Harmoning’s joy, they “hit” five-out-of-five routines.

 

“We couldn't have asked for a much better start than that,” she said.  

 

The biggest mishap the team suffered on floor was when Haley Hubbard took a step out of bounds on her first tumbling pass.  She would more than make up for the miscue on a later apparatus.

 

“Haley has been floor champion in our section and a state entrant on floor for three years already,” said Harmoning.  “Her goal was to repeat as state champion this year.  As soon as she saw her foot step out, I could see on her face that she was quite upset by it.”  

 

Harmoning knew she could still score well if she finished her routine on a good note,  so she tried getting the message to her through cheering and eye contact. Hubbard caught on to the glimpses and finished well, scoring a 9.35 (later  dropped to a 9.25 after the one-tenth penalty for out of bounds was applied).  

 

“We already knew at that point that Kassidy Severson had also scored 9.25 as well as the girl from North Branch,” said Harmoning.  “Since it was still very early in the meet, we just had to hold out hope that 9.25 would be enough to get both Kassidy and Haley into the individual floor qualification.”  

 

The scores did hold although one more girl was added to the tie.  Floor exercise ended up with a four-place tie for first place!

 

Becker results: 1-tie). Hubbard and Severson, 9.25 (also Keeley Ertl, North Branch, and Abby Weber, Sartell); 5-tie). Miranda O'Brien, 9.225; 12). Lindsay Olsen, 9.05; 16).  Aubree Lahr, 8.925.

 

In the second event, Harmoning could tell her girls were a little more nervous and jumpy than usual.  

 

“I was surprised to see them doubting themselves like they were,” she said.  “It caused a few extra tenths being deducted on landings.”

 

The judges’ scores were  very tight on the vault and as a result, the Bulldogs fell back to the competition a little after two exercises.

 

O'Brien was able to grab a third place tie on the event, which qualified her to compete individually in the vault competition at state.  

 

“I was a little bit disappointed for Lindsay Olsen and Katie Wilke, who finished just outside the top four in fifth and seventh place,” said the head coach..  “They also both performed very good vaults that would have done well in the state tournament.”

 

Becker results: 3-tie). O'Brien and Ertl (NB), 9.475; 5). Olsen, 9.175; 7).  Katie Wilke, 9.1; 18). Severson, 8.6; 23). Hubbard, 8.45.

 

Becker’s third event was bars, and although the team has “worked extremely hard to be well prepared and confident for this meet, too much self-doubt really held them back,” said Harmoning.  

 

Becker ended up having two falls, which cost the team a total of 1.4 points.

 

 The errors almost completely erased their lead as they began the third event with a 3-10ths lead heading into the final rotation.  The bright spots were Marlee Louden and O'Brien, who performed really good routines and tallied Becker’s best two scores. Olsen started us off strongly and normally Harmoning would have liked to drop Olsen's score and use the other four, but her score counted as the team’s third best on this day.

 

Becker results: 6).  Louden, 8.7; 11). O'Brien, 8.575; 21). Olsen, 8.05; 24). Emi Quill, 8.0; 26). Lahr- 7.9.

 

“Going to beam in the last rotation in such a pressure-packed competition is no easy task,” said Harmoning.  “Our team knew that they needed to hit beam routines in order for us to win the meet.”  

 

Harmoning said in order to take the pressure off the girls as best she could,  she “sequestered” each gymnast in the hallway where they could not watch what was happening in the gym. From there, she sent them out one-at-a-time when it was their turn to compete. 

 

Louden started the Bulldogs off with a solid routine and scored a 9.05. Wilke followed with a great routine, although she did suffer one fall.  

 

“Her score (8.8) was still good enough to keep us in it, Harmoning said. 

 

Olsen went third and stuck her routine, didn’t fall off the apparatus, despite being a little shaky.  Still she produced a strong score (8.875) for the team.  

 

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, O'Brien was a little off and ended up falling off the beam twice.  As Sartell competed in their final exercise (bars), they also struggled with the pressure and had a few miscues in their event.

 

As the other events closed out and the judges debated O’Brien’s score (8.15) — all eyes turned towards the beam as senior gymnast Hubbard paced and stretched to get ready for her routine.  

 

“We knew she needed to score at least 8.4 for us to win at that point,” said Harmoning. “That means she would need to stay on the beam with no falls.”

 

Hubbard blocked out the pressure and competed a very strong routine with just one tiny wobble.  After nailing her dismount, Hubbard raced into the arms of teammates and coaches, relieved she had completed the routine with little difficulty.

 

“We were all anxiously waiting for the judges to put up the score and it turned out to be an 8.7, which was good enough for the win,” said Harmoning.

 

Becker results: 6-tie). Louden, 9.05; 13). Olsen, 8.875; 15-tie). Wilke, 8.8; 18-tie). Hubbard, 8.7; 27). O'Brien, 8.15.

 

The top four individuals in each exercise advanced to the state tournament to compete individually Saturday.  

 

“We did not qualify a lot of individuals,” said Harmoning.  “Our section is very strong and there are a lot of very good athletes. The fact that our team won the meet with few individuals taking places in the top four is a testament to how strong our third, fourth and fifth gymnasts are on each event.”

 

O'Brien was able to qualify in the fourth spot of the all-around, scoring 35.425 points.  

 

“She is such a strong all-arounder, it's amazing that she was able to qualify even with two falls on the beam,” said the head coach.  “Hopefully she will have a great day Saturday and show what she is capable of in the all-around by placing in the top 10.”