The Bulldog gymnastics team journeyed to Eagan last weekend and came away with an oh-so-close opportunity for victory, losing to the hosts, 142.000 to 141.325.
The Bulldogs placed three athletes in the top five in the all around, with Miranda O’Brien scoring a 38.775 for first place. Thereafter followed Shannon McCoy, Eagan, 37.450; Teagan Ramboldt, Eagan, 35.200; Emi Quill, Becker, 34.700, and Lindsay Olsen, Becker, 34.325.
“This was close competition, and I’m super proud of the great effort our girls gave,” said Coach Jennifer Harmoning. “Eagan is one of the top Class AA schools, so to finish less than one point behind them is a very good result.
“It was a balanced effort on all four events.”
O’Brien, Sarah Woelfel and Emi Quill finished 3-4-5 on the uneven parallel bars, scoring an 8.725, an 8.625 and an 8.0.
O’Brien topped the competion with a 9.555 in the vault, with teammates Lindsay Olson, 9.150, fourth and Woelfel at 9.150 for fifth.
O’Brien finished second to Shannon McCoy of Eagan in the balance beam with a 9.000; Quill was third with an 8.8.
Eagan athletes took the top two places in the floor and O’Brien, Quill and Olsen finished 3-4-5 with scores of 9.5, 9.3 and 9.075.
Best team scores on vault and floor helped the Bulldogs to their best team score of the season.
“Other highlights included personal best scores from Amelia Kirchner on vault and floor and from Emi Quill on floor and in the all around.”
She says the best highlight of the evening was watching O’Brien successfully compete the first double back tumbling pass on floor in the history of BHS gymnastics.
“Miranda has been working so hard for this skill; to see her compete and nail it was magical. Each year there are usually only one or two gymnasts in the state that even attempt this skill in high school competition. It was a veryt exciting moment.”
Their next competition will be the Granite Ridge Conference championships Saturday at Howard Lake. The team will then compete at the Section 7A tournament next Saturday at Monticello, with the top team and top three performers in each event advancing to the state tournament.
The Becker JV team scored a 126.550 to finish second to Eagan’s 130.700.
Faith Madsen, Fallon Peterson, Mackensie Cota, Justine Vilmo, Rebecca Psyk and Tessa Maruska were top scorers for the team.
