December 3, 2018 at 1:21 p.m.
Hodag gymnasts finish second in opener
Hodag gymnasts finish second in opener
The Hodags posted a score of 114.875 points as they finished second in the inaugural Medford Hot Cocoa Invite Saturday in Medford. The hosting Raiders, who finished third in the GNC Small last year, won the invite on the strength of strong debuts by freshmen Brooklyn Bilz and Makayla Ulrich, who finished 1-2 in the all-around.
Rhinelander, which returned most of its starting lineup from last year, didn't miss much. Senior Raven Sturtevant was third in the all-around and the Hodags finished near where coach Heather Sturtevant expected they would.
"I was probably hoping maybe a little higher, maybe a point or two, but when you add up those couple falls, we're there," she said. "We know that the girls' skills are there and are at the level we need them to be. We'll just keep moving up from there.
"I think it went really well. We still had some nerves but the girls really rose to the occasion."
Raven Sturtevant had the Hodags' highest score in three of the four events. She won the uneven bars - the event that qualified her for last year's WIAA state meet - with a score of 7.725. She tied for fourth on vault (8.2), tied for fifth on balance beam (7.5) and tied for eighth on the floor exercise (7.2).
Bridget Koser scored Rhinelander's only other top-five finish, tying for fifth on the uneven bars (6.575).
Though bars was the team's lowest-scoring event on the day, the team did the best in that event relative to the competition. Rhinelander placed all five of its varsity gymnasts in the top 10 in that event with Raven Sturtevant, Koser, Harile Zimmerman (sixth), Lilli Bishop (seventh) and Autumn Shafer (eighth).
It was a start, but Heather Sturtevant stressed the team can do some things to improve its score in that event.
"We're looking at maybe redoing a few things and adding a few things to bars so we can up those starting values," she said.
Staying on the beam is a point of emphasis for the team this season, and the Hodags appeared to be improved on that front Saturday. Raven Sturtevant had a no-fall routine as did Zimmermann, who tied for seventh (7.35) with junior teammate Amber Briggs, who had only one fall. The team took five falls overall in the event, each coming with a half-point deduction in score.
"We started last year and I think we had 11 falls," Heather Sturtevant said. "I'll take five, yet this is just our first (meet). We've been doing a lot more no-fall routines in the gym and I'm hoping to see that number just get even smaller."
Shafer was sixth for Rhinelander on the floor exercise and tied for eighth on vault. Koser tied for eighth on floor exercise. Shafer finished seventh in the all-around (27.725) while Bishop was eighth (26.925).
Five different Hodags set personal bests in varsity events on Saturday - Briggs and Zimmermann on balance beam, Koser and Bishop (6.225) on uneven bars, and Shafer on vault (7.95). Shafer's all-around score also matched her previous career high.
Yet Rhinelander did not have anything for Medford as Bilz and Ulrich finished in the top five in all four events, including 1-2 finishes on balance beam and floor exercise. Rhinelander knows the chase is on if it wants to retain its GNC Small title.
"We need to not give away points that we can control, so trying to work those falls," Heather Sturtevant said. "We have some really great bar girls on some of the other teams, so we want our bring our level up to them. (The other teams) have some nice floor stuff too, so we can't miss our passes."
Mosinee (105.35) finished third and Chequamegon (94.1) was fifth in the five-team meet. Lakeland was the only GNC Small team not in attendance, after pulling out of the meet last last week. All five GNC Small schools are slated to be part of the field this Saturday as Rhinelander hosts the annual Snowflake Invitational at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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