December 12, 2018 at 12:49 p.m.
Rhinelander gymnasts down Chequamegon in GNC Small opener
Rhinelander gymnasts down Chequamegon in GNC Small opener
Rhinelander outscored Chequamegon in every event and defeated the Screaming Eagles 112.825-89.25 in a dual meet at the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium. The Hodags' score was down nearly 4.7 points from their showing three days earlier at home in the Snowflake Invite.
"We did get the win, which we needed, but this was definitely not Saturday's meet," coach Heather Sturtevant said. "I think the big buildup to Saturday and then having another meet really a practice later, you could tell the girls were tired. We still had some shining moments, but kind of everything was a little more subdued, not quite as crisp. We had more falls on beam."
One of those shining moments came during the floor exercise. The team posted its best score of the season on the event, a 31.3, and swept the top five spots in the event. Sophomore Bridget Koser won the floor exercise with a career-high score of 8.2, followed by fellow sophomore Autumn Shafer (7.85) and freshman Mallory Myers, who had a career-best 7.7.
"Floor was our biggie and kind of our saving (grace)," Sturtevant said. "We finally saw the floor routines that I had expected at the last two meets. Mallory and Bridget both got personal bests. Bridget finally broke that 8 mark that I know she was chasing all last season. That was wonderful. The others threw up some really nice scores."
Senior Raven Sturtevant won the three other events and took the all-around, although her combined score of 28.975 was roughly 2 1/2 points off her total from the Snowflake Invite. Sturtevant tied for first on the vault (7.75), won the uneven bars (6.675) and lead a Hodag sweep of the top four spots on balance beam (7.0).
Harlie Zimmermann was the runner-up on beam (6.775), followed by Koser (6.7). Though the Hodags were better than Chequamegon on the beam, they took a season-high six falls in the event, and scored a 26.85 in the event, well off their total of 29.775 at the Snowflake. Rhinelander's highest score on beam for the night actually came from the JV level, where freshman Karissa Lavender posted a personal-best score of 7.2.
The Hodags also had lower marks as a team Tuesday night on vault and uneven bars.
Shafer added a third-place finish for Rhinelander on vault (7.5). Koser finished second in the all-around (27.7) followed by Shafer in fourth (27.375).
The meet was Rhinelander's last before the holiday break. The team will return to action three weeks from today in a dual meet at Mosinee Thursday, Jan. 3. Heather Sturtevant said the three weeks in between will be spent cleaning up routines, adding some new elements.
"Those are things that we know we can fix," she said. "Now we have almost three weeks until our next meet. We've got work to do, but it's not like completely reworking routines. It's tidying up things."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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