While Harrisburg rolled to the team title at the Hub City Invitational gymnastics meet on Thursday evening, progress was also made by a trio of local teams.

Sisseton finished third, Milbank was fourth, and Aberdeen Central took fifth.

“I feel like the girls did well,” said Central coach Mickey Everson. “We’re competing against some of the bigger names in the state.”

The highest area finisher was Izzy Metz of Sisseton, who took fifth in the all-around. She also placed fourth in the vault, her favorite event.

“I like the power of it, instead of like beam and bars are more graceful and floor, but vault you just get to run on it and go,” Metz said. “I like that it’s nice and short.”

Metz said she improved in every event but one from her first meet last week.

“Every meet is just trying to improve myself,” she said, “and improving my team.”

Metz is motivated heading into her senior season after coming up just short of placing in all-around at last year’s state meet.

“My goal for this year is to place all-around at state,” Metz said. “Last year I placed 11th by a half a tenth. So I’m hoping to place all-around this year.”

Interestingly enough, Metz and her teammates have a challenge when it comes to the floor exercise. They do not have a regulation length floor at their school.

“Our situation is we only have half a floor, so we don’t get to do our full floor routines or full passes,” Metz said. “It’s tough, but we’ve adjusted well.”

Metz explained that the gymnasts can only work on part of their routines at a time before heading to a meet.

“We do it compressed. … We can’t do it all at once,” she said.

Milbank’s Macyn Dunnihoo finished in a tie for fifth in the vault. The junior was pleased with her results, especially against the larger schools.

“I think it went pretty well,” Dunnihoo said. “I feel like, personally, you have to have a lot of confidence in yourself, especially going against these bigger teams.”

Dunnihoo said her favorite event is floor, because “I feel the most confident on it and I love the skills I do.”

She plans to continue to add more things to her routines as the year goes on.

“I definitely want to upgrade my vault,” she said, “and right now I’m working on a Tsuk, and on bars I’m working on a release move.”

Central’s Alexis Bomesberger also improved from her season-opening meet last week.

“My floor score went up. Last time I got an 8.8, and I got an 8.95 now, so that was good,” Bomesberger said. “I’m going to upgrade some passes and stuff like that.”

Bomesberger is one of two juniors on a young and small Central squad.

“I’m team captain, so I feel like that kind of puts me up there and kind of makes me a little more satisfied with myself,” she said. “I always try to direct my team in a good way.”

When asked what advice she gives to her younger teammates, Bomesberger responded, “Honestly, have fun and just don’t stress so much. I mean it is a high school sport and I know it’s hard, but you’re not going to remember the scores, you’re going to remember the memories with your team.”

The team leader was pleased with how the meet went and how the younger gymnasts handled it.

“I think it was great,” Bomesberger said. “Our whole team, we had a good attitude and that’s always what I want to walk in from, is just going in with a good attitude and you’ll have a good meet, and we did.”

The Golden Eagles had an additional gymnast jump up to varsity for one event on Thursday. Ryliee Zens competed on the bars.

“Our team isn’t very deep, so I pulled up a middle school girl today to do varsity and she pulled her weight. She did amazing,” Everson said. “I asked her to do this and she was excited and did it. She did the best bar routine I’ve ever seen her do.”

Everson isn’t about to get too caught up in team points, knowing that with a limited squad there is only so much the Golden Eagles can do.

“We’re not very deep,” Everson said, “so if somebody falls on one event, we’re going to see the fluctuation in scores, but I feel like the girls did well.”

Central is now off until competing at a meet in Milbank on Saturday, Dec. 20.

Everson was pleased with what she saw on Thursday night.

“I’m super proud of the girls, whether their scores reflected what they did or not,” she said. “I’m proud of what they did.”

Team Points: 1, Harrisburg 144.55; 2, Watertown 139.55; 3, Sisseton 133.5; 4, Milbank 127.15; 5, Aberdeen Central 126.65.

Vault: 1, Hadley Moody, Harrisburg, 9.45; 2, Jersy Tyron, Harrisburg, 9.25; 3, Laela Vincent, Harrisburg, 9.1; 4, Izzy Metz, Sisseton; 5, (tie) Macyn Dunnihoo, Milbank, 8.8, and Shauna Evenson, Watertown, 8.8.

Bars: 1, Ailee Johnson, Harrisburg, 9.2; 2, Jersey Tryon, Harrisburg, 9.1; 3, Elly Dingsor, Watertown; 4, Hadley Moody, Harisburg, 8.5; 5, Kiera Schultz, Watertown, 8.2.

Beam: 1, (tie) Shauna Evenson, Watertown, 9.5, and Macy Olsen, Watertown, 9.5; 3, Hadley Moody, Harrisburg, 9.35; 4, Laela Vincent, Harrisburg, 9.25; 5, Jersy Tryon, Harrisburg, 9.2.

Floor: 1, Lilly Gusso, Harrisburg, 9.65; 2, Shauna Evenson, Watertown, 9.45; 3, Regan Lust, Aberdeen Central, 9.4; 4, Emery Gaikowski, Watertown, 9.3; 5, Jersy Tryon, Harrisburg, 9.25.

All-Around: 1, Jersy Tryon, Harrisburg, 36.8; 2, Hadley Moody, Harrisburg, 36.3; 3, Shauna Evenson, Watertown, 35.7; 4, Emery Gaikowski, Watertown, 34.7; 5, Izzy Metz, Sisseton, 34.05.

Other Aberdeen Central results

Vault: Hattie Gederos, 8.75; Regan Lust, 8.45; Alexis Bomesberger, 8.4; Morgan Griebel, 8.1.

Bars: Alexis Bomesberger, 7.05; Regan Lust, 6.9; Hattie Gederos, 6.85; Ryliee Zens, 6.4; Morgan Griebel, 5.2.

Beam: Regan Lust, 8.65; Alexis Bomesberger, 7.95; Hattie Gederos, 7.6; Morgan Griebel, 7.15.

Floor: Alexis Bomesberger, 8.95; Morgan Griebel, 8.35; Hattie Gederos, 7.45.

All-Around: Regan Lust, 33.4; Alexis Bomesberger, 32.35; Hattie Gederos, 30.65; Morgan Griebel, 28.8; Ryliee Zens, 6.4.

To see complete meet results, click on the following link:

https://scoreflippers.com/INSIGHT/Meet_Scores_Simple.aspx?MeetID=36587