The Becker Bulldog girls gymnastics team finished fourth at Lakeville Saturday and beat Rockford Tuesday to improve to 5-3.

 

Megan Murphy sat out both meets this past week due to illness. Montanna Edling did not compete at either event because she suffered a severe ankle sprain during training over the holiday break. Lexi Reichle did not compete at Rockford because she is resting her back (mild sprain).

 

 

The Bulldogs came away with a 12+ point win over the Rockford Rockets Tuesday on the road.

 

“Vaults were good, but not as sharp as they could be,” said Head Coach Jen Harmoning.

 

Already short-handed, Kassidy Severson was unable to compete after pulling her hamstring during the JV floor portion of the meet.

 

Lindsay Olsen took first with a score of 9.2, Hannah Schmidt was second with 9.15, Miranda O'Brien was third with 9.125 and Haley Hubbard was fifth with 8.5.

 

Harmoning said the uneven bars was an improvement from Saturday's performances in Lakeville, but with only one training session between the two meets, she feels there is still have a lot of kinks to be ironed out.  

 

“It was a great effort to put the unfortunate incidents from Saturday in the past and move beyond them, so I was really proud of the bars team for handling that well,” she said.

 

Haley Olsen took first, scoring an 8.5, Lindsay Olsen took second scoring an 8.45, Schmidt took third with an 8.275 and Marlee Louden took fourth, scoring an 8.2.

 

The team performed very well on floor, however Lindsay Olsen over-rotated her first tumbling pass and was unable to continue her routine.  Harmoning said she will be okay, but she did not compete on the final event (beam).

 

Schmidt had a nice routine that earned her a personal best score of 9.425 and first place.  Miranda O'Brien placed second with a score of 8.975, Kylee Pudas placed third, scoring an 8.9 and Haley Hubbard placed fourth, scoring an 8.825.

 

“We tried several new skills tonight and most things went very well,” said the head coach.  “We just need to clean up the execution and landings.”

 

The team finished the night on beam and unfortunately with Olsen's mishap on floor, the Bulldogs were competing with only four gymnasts and all scores having to count.  

 

“Too little focus on the little things caused a multitude of falls and we found ourselves just relieved to have it over,” said Harmoning.

 

Miranda O"Brien took first place with an 8.575 score. Louden placed second with an 8.25, Pudas placed third with an 8.1 and Schmidt placed fifth with a 7.75.

 

Schmidt won the all-around competition with a score of 34.6.

 

Saturday, the girls traveled to Lakeville to compete against 15 of the area’s top teams in the state.

 

Harmoning said the event at Lakeville was a “tale of two halves.”

 

“We had the best vault and floor of the season so far, but bars and beam were full of mistakes,” she said.

 

However, she said it was great to see her girls still earn fourth place in this huge meet and be the second-best Class A school even with significantly poor performances on two events.

 

Becker did not have any athletes earn top 10 finishes on bars and beam.

 

Schmidt tied for third place on vault with her best vault ever and personal best score of 9.5. Miranda O'Brien did a great vault, earning a 9.4 and tying for sixth place. Lindsay Olsen also performed her best vault of the season, placing in a tie for 10th place and earning a personal best 9.35 score.

 

The varsity's team total of 36.95 was a season high.

 

Schmidt tied for sixth place on floor with a score of 9.3. Olsen earned another personal best score on floor, tying for ninth place and scoring 9.25.

 

The varsity's team total of 36.6 was a season high.

 

Schmidt was Becker’s top all-arounder in 14th place, scoring 35.35. Olsen earned a personal best 34.85 in the all-around.

 

Scores: 1). Roseville, 146.05; 2). Melrose, 145.15; 3). Lakeville North, 141.9; 4). Becker, 139.55; 5). Austin, 139.2; 6). Cambridge-Isanti, 139.05; 7). Wayzata, 137.85; 8). Stillwater, 137.5; 9). Lakeville South, 134.0;10). Brainerd, 133.5; 11). Eastview, 133.05; 12). Park, 132.6; 13). Eden Prairie, 131.55; 14). St. Francis, 130.75; 15). Prior Lake, 126.7; 16). Northfield, 125.35.

 

The JV team took first place among all the junior varsity teams.

 

Becker’s next competition is their final dual meet Thursday at home versus Little Falls.  That night, the team will be honoring parents and seniors.

 

“We have a little over a week off from competition, so we hope to continue healing and strengthening so that we can get all of the girls back into the line-up,” said Harmoning.  “We will also be working hard to clean up execution scores and gain confidence in our routines.”