Hodag gymnasts 10th at state

WISCONSIN RAPIDS — The Rhinelander High School gymnastics team ended its season Friday and Saturday with a solid performance at the WIAA state meet in Wisconsin Rapids.

Rhinelander finished with a 123.0334 in Friday’s team competition, a couple of points behind sectional champion Waupun. On Saturday, junior Emeline Hintz finished 23rd in the all-around and added an impressive 12th-place finish on the balance beam. Fellow junior Alexis Smith was 19th on the vault and freshman Marsadies Williams took 24th on both the uneven bars and the balance beam.

“The girls were able to come out here and do their routines, and it really showed when we were pretty much consistent with our scores for the whole year, which is hard to do in its state,” coach Kristina Aschenbrenner said. “Usually scores drop, five tenths to a whole point even. So we were able to come out and do our routines. We had some season-bests, even here at this meet, so that’s pretty impressive.”

    Rhinelander’s Emeline Hintz performs her balance beam routine during the WIAA Division 2 state individual gymnastics meet in Wisconsin Rapids Saturday, March 7. Hintz placed 12th in the event and 23rd in the individual all-around. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Hintz put together two solid days of competition. She led the Hodags in two events Friday and scored a 32.55 in the all-around. She was about a half point off on uneven bars in Saturday’s individual competition, but posted similar or better scores in the other three events as she scored 31.9667.

“I’m feeling very tired, but still, seeing everybody else makes me just want to get back out there and keep doing skills and learning new ones from other people,” Hintz said. “Yesterday was a very awesome day. I’m a little sad that today wasn’t as great, because today was individuals, but other than that, it just feels awesome to make it here and compete with all these other amazing girls.”

“I think the biggest lesson learned was this is a marathon, two solid days of six hours every day of gymnastics and waiting,” coach Aschenbrenner added. “That’s something that we don’t train for, or we haven’t had to before, so very good job considering this is a long two days.”

Beam went particularly well for Hintz both days. She had a no-fall routine on Friday that earned an 8.2667 from the judges. She bettered that performance Saturday, once again performing a near flawless routine that garnered an 8.5333. While strong, that score was still nearly a half point off the podium. Marshfield’s Jazlyn Kurth won the event with a 9.4333 and Valders’ Clara Sieracki took the sixth and final podium spot with a 9.0167. 

“Beam hit both days. They both were just what I wanted them to be,” Hintz said. 

“She has a beautiful presence on the beam and she was able to show that off. Hit her skills and stayed on the beam. You couldn’t ask for better outcome,” coach Aschenbrenner added.

While Hintz didn’t qualify for the individual competitions on vault, uneven bars and floor exercise, she competed in all of them to complete her all-around score. She posted an 8.1333 on vault, a 8.4167 on floor and a 6.8833 on uneven bars. Hintz’s floor score was 16th best among the 25 who competed in the all-around. 

“Bars yesterday was amazing, felt really good. Today, got a little stuck on high bar, but other than that, that one went pretty well too,” she said. “Vault, I stuck yesterday’s landing today, almost just as good. Feeling pretty good about that. Floor, both days felt really good. Yesterday, I really did everything I wanted to on floor. It was, I felt like, my best flow routine of the season. And today, almost just the same.” 

    Rhinelander’s Alexis Smith vaults during the WIAA Division 2 state individual gymnastics meet in Wisconsin Rapids Saturday, March 7. Smith finished 19th in the event. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

Junior Alexis Smith was the first gymnast to compete Saturday on the vault. After scoring an 8.3333 on her first attempt, she picked it up on the second, earning higher marks from all three judges as she scored an 8.4667. That held on for a tie for 19th overall and was almost a half point higher than her performance two years ago at the state meet.

“I am extremely happy with my vaults. They felt very good, very powerful today. My scores were great. Moving up that much from freshman year was a huge accomplishment,” Smith said. 

“Such an improvement from two years ago. She’s come a long way, and just, I guess, the cherry on top, sticking that landing on that second vault,” coach Aschenbrenner added.

    Rhinelander’s Marsadies Williams dismounts from the balance beam during the WIAA Division 2 state individual gymnastics meet in Wisconsin Rapids Saturday, March 7. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)
  

Williams scored a 7.4333 on uneven bars, placing fourth among the seven gymnasts from the Antigo sectional who qualified in the event. She struggled on balance beam, falling twice as she scored a 6.9667.

“Bars was pretty good. I stayed tight a lot, so it was a better score than yesterday, and it was just a lot better. Beam kind of took a toll. But, I got what I could out of the routine,” Williams said.

“She’s a freshman. Who would have expected this in the first place? For her, this is just, get that experience, and really show off her hard work that she’s put in this season,” coach Aschenbrenner said. “Her bars, she did what she needed to do. She put together not a complete season-high, but, I mean, right up there. And again, at state to score those scores, is pretty amazing.” 

Rhinelander was projected to be toward the bottom of the team standings, given that the Antigo sectional from which it qualified had, collectively, the lowest scores among the five Division 2 sectionals. That bared out during the competition. While Rhinelander posted solid scores on vault, floor and uneven bars, it was still 10th in the field in all of those events. Rhinelander was ninth on the balance beam, edging out Waupun.  

Hintz had Rhinelander’s top scores on beam (8.2667) and uneven bars (7.5167) in Friday’s team competition while Smith was tops on vault (8.3667) and had a floor routine (8.7667) that would have placed in the top 15 had it happened during Saturday’s individual competition. Smith finished the day with a 30.7834 in the all-around. 

Williams wound up at 29.9 in the all-around on Friday while junior Addison Fish had a 29.7334. Both cracked into the 8s on vault, with Williams getting an 8.2 and Fish an 8.1167.

Junior Sam Aschenbrenner competed on both balance beam (6.5833) and uneven bars (6.4333) for Rhinelander, junior June Chiamulera competed on vault (7.4333) and junior Olivia Ruetz was thrust into action on the floor exercise after freshman Payton Walentowski was scratched due to injury in warmups prior to the events.

With hardly any notice, Ruetz scored a 6.35 on the floor.

“Olivia had three minutes to get in the mindset of, ‘I’m competing, and I’m at state, and this was not in the original plan, but I’m gonna do it.’ And she just did a spectacular job,” coach Aschenbrenner said. 

The Hodags had no seniors this year and said the goal for the weekend was to gain experience and learn for next year. To that end, Smith said the team accomplished its mission.

“It has been an amazing opportunity to be here, watching all the other girls compete, the other teams build each other up,” she said. “The huge skills that we never get to see, especially on vault, is just amazing to watch. And it was so nice to watch me and my teammates do some of our best routines of the year.”

Hintz added she has plenty she wants to accomplish over the offseason as she gets set for her senior campaign.

“I am so, so excited for this season. Like this summer training, I have many skills I want to work on in many skills that I think I’m pretty close to already from the beginning of the season that we worked on,” she said. “But we had to just narrow things down and stick to our routines, once it got closer to conference and sectionals and stuff. I’m just super excited for this summer to work on new skills.”

“Definitely the enthusiasm is there,” coach Aschenbrenner added. “So we just need to give our bodies a little time to heal up, and we’re gonna be right back at it, and hopefully, better than we were this year.”

Banquet held

The Hodags held their team banquet Thursday, March 5 at the Beck Family YMCA prior to making the trip to Wisconsin Rapids. 

In addition to varsity letter, the team handed out performance-based awards for scores achieved during the season. Rhinelander had five gymnasts — Hintz, Smith, Williams, Fish and Karly Gillingham — achieve scores of 30.0 or better in the all-around this season. Hintz was also named the team’s “Queen of the Beam” as its top performer on that event this year. 

The Hodags had multiple gymnasts make the 8.0 club by posting scores of 8.0 or better in at least one event. Hintz, Williams and Gillingham all scored 8.0 or better on vault, floor and balance beam; Smith and Fish both scored 8s on vault and floor; Sam Aschenbrenner ached an 8.0 score on balance beam and Chiamulera had a score in the 8s on vault. 

As the season closed, Smith thanked coaches Kristina Aschenbrenner and April Denis, along with the team’s volunteer coaches and those who supported the squad throughout the season.

“The whole team is so grateful to have them. We are also grateful for all the other people that have helped us this season … We are all so grateful to have so many people that are supporting us,” she said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].

State Gymnastics in photos

    Rhinelander’s Alexis Smith performs her floor exercise routine during the WIAA Division 2 state team gymnastics meet in Wisconsin Rapids Friday, March 6. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

    Rhinelander’s Sam Aschenbrenner performs her balance beam routine during the WIAA Division 2 state team gymnastics meet in Wisconsin Rapids Friday, March 6. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

    Rhinelander’s Olivia Ruetz performs her floor exercise routine during the WIAA Division 2 state team gymnastics meet in Wisconsin Rapids Friday, March 6. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

    Rhinelander gymnastics coach Kristina Aschenbrenner high-fives Emeline Hintz following Hintz’s balance beam routine during the WIAA Division 2 state team gymnastics meet in Wisconsin Rapids Friday, March 6. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

    The Rhinelander High School gymnastics team huddles prior to the WIAA Division 2 state team gymnastics meet in Wisconsin Rapids Friday, March 6. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

    Rhinelander’s Addison Fish performs her balance beam routine during the WIAA Division 2 state team gymnastics meet in Wisconsin Rapids Friday, March 6. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

    Rhinelander’s June Chiamulera marches in prior to the WIAA Division 2 state team gymnastics meet in Wisconsin Rapids Friday, March 6. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

    Rhinelander’s Emeline Hintz performs her floor exercise routine during the WIAA Division 2 state individual gymnastics meet in Wisconsin Rapids Saturday, March 7. (Brett LaBore/Lakeland Times)