While traditional powers Harrisburg and O’Gorman ruled over the Hub City Invitational gymnastics meet on Saturday, local squads held their own and made strides at the Aberdeen Central Auxiliary Gym.
Harrisburg won the meet with OG second. Aberdeen Central finished fifth right ahead of Britton-Hecla and Milbank.
“All around, I think the girls did good,” said Central coach Mickey Everson. “We had a few falls on beam, and beam is always the determination right there. We added a few more things that we haven’t done before.”
That’s been the plan for the Golden Eagles this season, to add a few more twists and turns as the year progresses.
Speaking of twists, that’s exactly what Central’s Regan Lust did to earn Central’s top individual mark on the day, finishing eighth in the floor exercise.
“She’s one of the one’s we added a twist to. Some of the requirements on floor require that you do a twisting skill,” Everson said. “We added one in there for her that I knew she was capable of doing. That was a big highlight, because she was clean and it was good.”
The top individual result by an area gymnast came in the vault, where Britton-Hecla’s Abigail Lee recorded a fourth-place finish.
“Vault has been a strong suit for us the last couple years. Training in our gym is a little bit different than training in some of these bigger gyms, and so the girls, we have to accommodate in a lot of ways,” said Britton-Hecla coach Angela Grupe. “They hang with me. They’ve got the strength. We’re going after the long-term goal here not the short-term stuff, and so they did very well. We had very good vaulters today.”
The Braves were led by Kaegan Fredrickson. The senior finished 10th in all-around, two spots better than Lee.
“I was pleased overall with my performance,” Fredrickson said. “I didn’t have any falls on beam and I landed both my vaults, so that was really exciting, but I definitely have a lot of execution to clean up.”
Fredrickson said that the floor exercise is her favorite event in gymnastics, because it gives her the freedom to set up her routine.
“It’s really fun to kind of let your creativity flow and express yourself doing your floor routine,” she said.
Fredrickson said it takes a day to line up the music and choreography, but that she changes it from time to time throughout the season.
“I change mine throughout the year and I find what works best for me,” Fredrickson said. “There’s some parts that I don’t like, so then I adjust them to make it the best that I can.”
Central’s top all-around competitor was Addison Everson. Her top finish was in the vault where she tied for ninth, but she pointed to a different event as her most satisfying performance of the day.
“I’m really happy about floor. I got my highest score this season,” she said. “I’m a little disappointed on bars and beam. Those two are kind of the ones that can either go really good or really bad. Today, I guess just wasn’t the day for those, but floor and vault I did pretty good.”
The junior knows that the season is a work in progress and that the Eagles will keep adding more things as the competition wears on.
“Right now, we’re slowly kind of starting to add new skills. We’re even getting prepared to add more and newer, harder skills,” the gymnast said. “We’re mostly focusing on trying to keep it clean and simple, just to start off, and then we’ll add the harder ones.”
Grupe said the season is just getting started for her squad, which competed without a couple of members on Saturday. She was pleased with what she saw, especially out of Fredrickson and Lee.
“It’s about consistency, it’s about hitting. You can have high scores, low scores, none of that matters,” Grupe said. “It’s about doing the job that you can do when you’re out there. The two girls that were standing up there today, didn’t fall. They did good.”
Milbank’s Hannah Brown topped the Bulldogs in every category on the way to taking 11th in the all-around.
Central continues a very busy stretch to start the season. After having three events in the first 10 days, the Golden Eagles have two more events this week. In addition to a meet in Milbank on Saturday, the squad will head to Jamestown, N.D. for a tri-state meet on Tuesday.
“It’s a bunch of North Dakota teams and a Minnesota team, which is always fun for us, because it’s different,” Coach Everson said. “They’re teams you never see.”
Team Points: 1, Harrisburg 142.075; 2, O’Gorman, 134.625; 3, Pierre, 132.700; 4, Watertown, 132.250; 5, Aberdeen Central, 126.500; 6, Britton-Hecla, 124.950; 7, Milbank 118.975; 8, Huron, 115.875.
Vault: 1, Ella Luttman, O’Gorman, 9.00; 2, Ashlynn Andrews, Watertown, 8.825; 3, Brinley Sanderson, Harrisburg, 8.725; 4, Abigail Lee, Britton-Hecla, 8.675; 5, Kristen Korber, Pierre, 8:625; 6, Rose Dvoracek, O’Gorman, 8.600; 7, Teagan Lynch, O’Gorman, 8.575; 8, Hadley Moody, Harrisburg, 8.525; 9, (tie) Jersy Tryon, Harrisburg, 8.500, Kaegan Fredickson, Britton-Hecla, 8.500, and Addison Everson, Aberdeen Central, 8.500; 12, (tie) Brecken Santjer, Aberdeen Central, 8.475, and Nevaeh Karber, Pierre, 8.475.
Other Aberdeen Central results: Johanna Jarrott, 8.425; Kalli Rowden, 8.350; Alexis Bomesberger, 7.750.
Other Britton-Hecla results: Kennady Van Lith, 7.85; McKenna Heer, 7.725; Emma Kraft, 7.375.
Milbank results: Hannah Brown 8.375; Gemma Street, 7.80; Macyn Dunnihoo, 7.775; Madilyn Sletten, 7.450; Raina Untalan, 7.300.
Bars: 1, Ailee Johnson, Harrisburg, 9.075; 2, Jersy Tryon,Harrisburg, 8.550; 3, Brinley Sanderson, Harrisburg, 8.475; 4, Macy Olsen, Watertown, 8.275; 5, Hadley Moody, Harrisburg, 7.650; 6, Teagan Lynch, O’Gorman, 7.6250; 7, KaCee Wilson, Pierre, 7.625; 8, Ella Luttman, O’Gorman, 7.600; 9, Rose Dvoracek, O’Gorman, 7.475; 10, Kennedy Malloy, Harrisburg, 7.450; 11, (tie) Marli Wadsworth, Watertown, 7.400, and Ryan Sheppick, Pierre, 7.400.
Aberdeen Central results: Izzy Loecker, 7.325; Addison Everson, 6.825; Kaylee Naasz, 6.725; Johanna Jarrott, 6.400; Brecken Santjer, 5.650.
Britton-Hecla results: Kaegan Frederickson, 7.175; Kennady Van Lith, 7.025; Emma Kraft, 6.975; Abigail Lee, 6.875; McKeena Heer, 6.275.
Milbank: Hannah Brown, 7.025; Macyn Dunnihoo, 6.950; Madilyn Sletten, 5.350; Arla Prasnicki, 5.200.
Beam: 1, Meredith Hruby, Harrisburg, 9.425; 2, Brinley Sanderson, Harrisburg; 3, Jersy Tryon, Harrisburg, 9.275; 4, Lilly Gusso, Harrisburg, 9.050; 5, Ashlynn Andrews, Watertown, 9.000; 6, Nevaeh Karber, Pierre, 8.925; 7, Kathryn Pellicotte, O’Gorman, 8.875; 8, Briana McElhany, Watertown, 8.800; 9, Ryen Sheppick, Pierre, 8.750; 10, Rose Dvoracek, O’Gorman, 8.725; 11, Ella Luttman, O’Gorman, 8.675; 12, Anna Sanchez-Exposito, O’Gorman, 8.500.
Aberdeen Central results: Regan Lust, 7.925; Brecken Santjer, 7.700; Alexis Bomesberger, 7.675; Addison Everson, 7.525; Hattie Gederos, 7.100.
Britton-Hecla results: Kaegan Fredrickson, 8.250; Abigail Lee, 7.750; Emma Kraft, 7.350; Kennady Van Lith, 7.300; McKenna Heer, 5.850.
Milbank results: Hannah Brown, 8.050; Macyn Dunnihoo, 7.475; JadaLeigh Wellnitz, 7.250; Raina Untalan, 7.000; Gemma Street, 6.750.
Floor: 1, Brinley Sanderson, Harrisburg, 9.550; 2, Lilly Gusso, Harrisburg, 9.450; 3, Macy Olson, Watertown, 9.275; 4, Ella Luttman, O’Gorman, 9.250; 5, Hadley Moody, Harrisburg, 9.175; 6, Jersy Tryon, Harrisburg, 9.125; 7, Nevaeh Karber, Pierre, 9.100; 8, Regan Lust, Aberdeen Central, 9.075; 9, Kaitlynn Rudebusch, Watertown, 9.000, and Madelyn Merrill, Pierre, 9.000; 11, Ryen Sheppick, Pierre, 8.800; 12, Kathryn Pellicotte, O’Gorman, 8.750.
Other Aberdeen Central results: Maddy Walberg, 8.550; Addison Everson, 8.550; Alexis Bomesberger, 8.475; Izzy Loecker, 7.300.
Britton-Hecla results: Kennady Van Lith, 8.425; Abigail Lee, 8.425; Jaelee Grupe, 8.400; Kaegan Frederickson, 8.250; McKenna Heer, 7.850.
Milbank results: Hannah Brown, 8.700; Macyn Dunnihoo, 8.575; Gemma Street, 7.950; Madilyn Sletten, 7.950; Raina Untalan, 7.700.
All-Around: 1, Brinley Sanderson, Harrisburg, 36.125; 2, Jersy Tryon, Harrisburg, 35.450; 3, Ella Luttman, O’Gorman, 34.525; 4, Rose Dvoracek, O’Gorman, 33.525; 5, Nevaeh Karber, Pierre, 33.375; 6, Ryen Sheppick, Pierre, 33.375; 7, Anna Sanchez-Exposito, O’Gorman, 32.750; 8, (tie) KaCee Wilson, Pierre, 32.750, and Teagan Lynch, O’Gorman, 32.750; 10, Kaegan Frederickson, Britton-Hecla, 32.175; 11, Hannah Brown, Milbank, 32.150; 12, Abigail Lee, Britton-Hecla, 31.725.
Aberdeen Central results: Addison Everson, 31.400; Alexis Bomesberger, 23.900; Brecken Santjer, 21.825; Regan Lust, 17.000; Johanna Jarrott, 14.825; Izzy Loecker, 14.625; Maddy Walberg, 8.550; Kalli Rowden, 8.350; Hattie Gederos, 7.100; Kaylee Naasz, 6.725
Other Britton-Hecla results: Kennady Van Lith, 30.600; McKenna Heer, 27.700; Emma Kraft, 21.700; Jaelee Grupe, 8.400
Other Milbank results: Macyn Dunnihoo, 30.775; Gemma Street, 27.800; Raina Untalan, 22.000; Madilyn Sletten, 20.750; JadaLeigh Wellnitz, 7.250; Aria Prasnicki, 5.200.
