December 20, 2019 at 1:19 p.m.
Hodag gymnasts beat Chequamegon 112.85-104.875
Hodag gymnasts beat Chequamegon 112.85-104.875
Rhinelander scored fractions of a point higher than it did five days earlier when it hosted the Snowflake Invite. Coach Heather Sturtevant said incremental gains are what she's looking for at this point of the season.
"We still had a little improvement which is nice," she said. "We, unfortunately, are dealing with a couple of injuries that definitely affected (our performance) a little bit today. Still seeing some improvement is good."
The majority of the difference in the meet came on the floor exercise and balance beam, where the Hodags significantly outscored the Screaming Eagles. Rhinelander had a 31-27.8 advantage on floor, and a 27.275-23.475 advantage on the beam as it had four of the top five finishers in both events.
Freshman Payton Rudawski had a strong meet for the Hodags. She won the balance beam with a score of 7.125, took second on the vault with an 8.05 and finished fifth on the floor exercise with a 7.35.
"Payton absolutely had a great meet," Sturtevant said. "With that win, she had a very solid no-fall routine on beam, which was huge. The she broke into the 8s already on vault. Even her floor was a personal best. She had an absolutely outstanding meet."
Junior Lilli Bishop tied for first on uneven bars (6.7) and finished second in the individual all-around, one tenth of a point behind Chequamegon's Kristina Peterson (29.15). Bishop tied for second on the floor exercise and finished fifth on the balance beam and vault.
Fellow junior Autumn Shafer, who Sturtevant said is battling through injuries, finished fourth in the all-around (28.5). She tied with Bishop for second on the floor, was fourth on uneven bars and vault, and sixth on the beam.
"I'm glad it is going to be break. Autumn really needs to heal ankles and she's got a wrist/forearm injury," Sturtevant said. "She actually got it X-rayed yesterday because she was afraid she maybe fractured something, but she didn't. She definitely needs to heal."
Bridget Koser added a runner-up finish on beam (6.85) and Amber Briggs was fourth in the event. Koser also finished third on uneven bars and fourth on the floor for Rhinelander.
Peterson won vault and floor for Chequamegon on her way to the individual all-around win. Kiana Schmidt tied Bishop for first on uneven bars and finished third in the all-around.
The Hodags now have three weeks away from competition before returning to action Jan. 9 when they will host Mosinee in an GNC Small dual. Sturtevant said the team will use the time to fine-tune routines, add some new skills and stress the team's weakest event so far this season - uneven bars.
"We're just starting to work some new skills that we didn't want to throw in today," she said. "We're really hoping to get them a little more solid. Then we'll really be hitting bars, getting those pauses out, getting them to flow, so the girls are actually getting the scores they should be getting. They're executing each skill, it's just the breaks in continuity really affect our scores a lot."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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