The Becker Bulldog girls gymnastics team competed in the Rush City/Pine City/Hinckley-Finlayson Invitational last Friday night on the road.

 

 

“We had a great week of practice leading up to this meet,” said Head Coach Jen Harmoning. “So I was feeling really good about how we would do.  Unfortunately, the unexpected can and will happen, so things took an unexpected turn as we got going.”

 

Harmoning said as her team was going their final warm-ups, they made the decision not to compete Lindsay Olsen, who was trying hard to stick it out for the team but was experiencing some sharp pains in one of her shoulders.  

 

“Since the JV competition was already complete, I didn't have any other kids who could take her place,” said Harmoning.  “We ended up competing only four girls on each event (instead of five), so every score had to count.”  

 

In addition to missing Olsen, the Bulldogs were without Kylee Pudas, who was home with the flu.  

 

“We were also still missing Kassidy Severson and Lexi Reichle from the line-up due to their injuries,” said Harmoning.  “I was thinking about how wonderful it is that we have so much depth this year.  Normally, a team missing that many great athletes would really be in trouble, but we were still able to put a fabulous team out on the floor.”

 

Two bright spots were that Megan Murphy competed beam for the first time since December after recovering from mono, so it meant a lot to her and to the team that she was able to contribute on that one event.  The other bright spot was having Montanna Edling “pinch hit” for the team on vault.  She is still recovering from her ankle sprain and vaulting didn't feel very good on it, but she toughed it out and gave the girls a solid fourth score on that event.

 

“So with all the craziness going on, things could have really gotten ugly, but the team showed what kind of stuff they're made of and went out to compete like champs,” said the head coach.  “Going through adversity makes you stronger and this team stepped up to the challenge.”

 

Becker began on bars and hit four-for-four.  The biggest highlight was when Hannah Schmidt successfully landed her new, difficult dismount.  Schmidt and Haley Olsen tied for the top spot with scores of 8.75.  Marlee Louden did a great routine too and earned 8.4 points and third place.  Haley Hubbard scored 7.8 points.

 

Miranda O'Brien had a great vault, her best of the season, and finished with a score of 9.45 and first place.  Schmidt also did a fabulous vault for second place, scoring a 9.35.  Haley Hubbard took fifth place with a score of 8.8.  Edling scored 8.35 points.

 

Again, the girls turned in four strong routines while tying a few new things on the mat.  Hubbard and Schmidt shared first place with RPHF's Bailey Murawski with scores of 9.15.  Miranda O'Brien placed fifth with a score of 8.75.  Aubree Lahr scored an 8.6.

 

“Finishing on beam is tough, and even more so when you know you can't throw out your low score,” said Harmoning.  “Although there were a few extra wobbles here and there, we only had to count one fall.”  

 

Schmidt took first scoring an 8.85.  O'Brien was third scoring an 8.5, Murphy placed fourth scoring an 8.15 and Louden scored a 7.6.

 

Schmidt won the all-around with a personal best score of 36.1.  Because Lindsay Olsen did not compete, Becker had only one person who did all four events (Schmidt).

Saturday, Becker hosts the Granite Ridge Conference Championships in their new gymnastics gym.  The meet begins at noon.  

 

“We hope we have lots and lots of fans in attendance,” said Harmoning.  “Some people worry when they're at gym meets because they don't know when to cheer and stuff, but we want everybody to know they can come and be loud and show pride in our Bulldog gymnasts!”