February 18, 2019 at 2:00 p.m.
Hodag gymnasts take second at conference
Hodag gymnasts take second at conference
The Raiders put up a season-best score of 128.125 points, defeating Rhinelander by 8.25 points for the conference championship Saturday in Ashland. The Hodags' total of 119.875 was the team's second-best score of the season, but Medford was simply in a league of its own as it won its second GNC Small title in three years.
"They were fun to watch. The girls were just all really hitting for them," Rhinelander coach Heather Sturtevant said of the Raiders' performance on Saturday. "They really do deserve to be conference champs. They've been throwing up those kinds of scores the last multiple meets."
It's not that the Hodags did poorly, they secured a number of top-six finishes and senior Raven Sturtevant finished as the GNC Small champion on balance beam.
"Today went really well," Heather Sturtevant said. "Super proud of the girls. We started the meet on such a high. We started pretty good on beam, still had some falls, but our seniors, they came to really go out the best they could. Harlie (Zimmermann) and Raven both had no-fall routines. They both had personal bests. That set the tone for our day."
Zimmermann's score of 7.475 on beam was good enough for sixth place on the day. Raven Sturtevant turned in a career-best score of 8.525 to win the event by a tenth of a point over Medford's Mykala Ulrich.
"Her jumps were just so spot-on, hitting 180 (degrees) on her split jumps and switch splits, just nailing everything. It was cool," Heather Sturtevant said.
Raven Sturtevant finished fourth on the floor exercise (8.225) and tied for fifth on the vault (8.2) and earned all-conference honors with a third-place finish in the all-around (31.55), despite a rare fall on uneven bars that dropped her into an eighth-place tie in the event.
Floor exercise was a strong suit for the Hodags Saturday. The Hodags placed all five of their gymnasts in the top 10 in that event as they turned in a season-best score of 32.2. Sophomore Lilli Bishop and freshman Mallory Myers each recorded personal-bests in the even as they finished fifth and sixth with scores of 8.05 and 8.0, respectively.
Zimmermann was Rhinelander's top gymnast on uneven bars, placing sixth (7.0). Autumn Shafier finished seventh on both vault (8.15) and floor exercise (7.925) Bishop was seventh on uneven bars (6.75).
"We went in with no expectations," Heather Sturtevant said. "We knew weren't going to catch Medford but we still wanted to do the best we could and we threw up our second best score of the year. That was pretty awesome. The girls were really proud of themselves and we were super proud of them."
Sturtevant said the team will take a similar attitude into sectionals this Friday in Antigo. Ashland and Medford have established themselves as the odds-on favorites to earn the team qualifying spots, but the Hodags will look for individual qualifiers during the eight-team meet.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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