February 21, 2018 at 1:02 p.m.
Hodag gymnasts seeking career highs, state berths at sectionals
Hodag gymnasts seeking career highs, state berths at sectionals
The good news for the GNC Small division-champion Hodags is the five schools in the GNC Small make up 63 percent of tonight's eight-team sectional in Antigo. The bad news, the other three teams in the field all have individuals who will make the Hodags' state prospects rather difficult.
There are two ways to make it to the WIAA state meet in Wisconsin Rapids, which will take place next Friday and Saturday. The top two teams in each of the five Division 2 sectionals around the state will make the team portion of the meet, which will be held March 2. Individually, the top five and ties in each event and the all-around in each of the five sectionals will qualify for the individual competition March 3.
As has been the case for a number of years, Ashland and Antigo are the favorites to qualify in the team competition. Ashland comes in off a total score of 133.25 in last Saturday's Great Northern Conference meet while Antigo posted a 127.3.
Rhinelander has a long way to go to catch Antigo for the runner-up spot after posting a 119.3 at the GNCs. Coach Heather Sturtevant said her team was far from its best at conference - falls on the balance beam alone cost Rhinelander three points in the final standings - but Rhinelander will need to be flawless tonight if it has any shot of tracking down Antigo for the final team berth.
"Can we make up that much? I don't know, but that's what we're going to go for, how high can we get our team score and we'll see what it is," Sturtevant said.
Individually, Antigo and Ashland both bring a number of gymnasts who will be jockeying for state qualifying spots. Ashland had five girls in the all-around on Saturday and all five posted scores of 31.45 or better. Then there's the wild card in the bracket, Washburn's Lakyn Sonday. She wasn't at the GNC meet, but the only time Rhinelander saw her, at the Antigo Invite, she won all four events in the White Division and posted an all-around score of 34.125.
"Individually, it's going to be tough," Heather Sturtevant said. "Because we have a much more solid squad this year we are able to throw up those big scores collectively but each school has one or two real good girls on a piece of equipment."
If Heather's daughter, junior Raven Sturtevant, duplicates her career-best 8.225 performance on balance beam from last Saturday's GNC meet, she may have a shot. Only three gymnasts from Antigo or Ashland posted scores better than Sturtevant's GNC Small-winning balance beam routine and Sonday's score was 8.025 when she won the Antigo Invite.
Stephanie Kuester has also previously gone over 8 on balance beam, but had a three-fall performance on the event last Saturday. She bounced back with scores of 8.1 on uneven bars and 8.3 on vault which put her in the mix for the top five spots in those events, despite not being career-best scores. Kuester also has a 32.825 career-best in the all-around, which she may need to match to earn the fifth qualifying spot.
"They're going to have to push themselves to do their best routines and, again, we'll see where that puts us," Heather Sturtevant said. "If Steph wants to go on beam, she can't fall three times. Raven's going to need to hit her handstand on bars."
The sectional meet gets underway at 5 p.m. at Antigo High School's Sheldon Fieldhouse.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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