The Britton-Hecla gymnastics continued to show improvement in two meets during the past week and Coach Angela Grupe likes what she is seeing from her squad.
The Lady Braves finished second in a triangular at Sisseton on Saturday, just two-tenths of a point out of the top spot, and was just a half of point out of first in a triangular at Aberdeen Central last week Tuesday. Britton-Hecla’s junior varsity squad took the team titles in both meets.
This week the local gymnasts will compete in a triangular at Huron on Thursday.
“We had a solid day in a very competitive meet at Sisseton with three Northeast Conference teams all within a half point,” noted Grupe. “January should prove to be tough competition. It appears the top eight teams in the state are all scoring around 130-plus. I feel very good with where we are right now because I believe we have more point potential to add at this point than most years. Our focus will be a productive January with gradual increases, keeping our eye on February as the peak point.”
Three gymnasts recorded their third state-qualifying scores in last week’s meets. Taryn Kraft and Kennady Van Lith have both qualified on the balance beam and Jaelee Grupe is a state qualifier in floor exercise.
Van Lith was an event winner at Sisseton, taking the uneven parallel bars title with a 8.35 effort. In the JV division Adalynn Schmieg won the bars and floor exercise and was also first all-around.
In Aberdeen Van Lith won the beam title. In the JV bracket Ady Schmieg won the bars and was first all-around and Marley Sundin took the vault crown. Junior high gymnasts also competed in Aberdeen with Sage Phillips winning floor exercise and the all-around title.
FOR FULL STATS, SEE THIS WEEK'S JOURNAL.
