The Britton-Hecla gymnastics team was bitten by the influenza bug this week and was not able to field a full team for its’ regular season finale at Deuel on Saturday.
The Lady Braves hope to be healthy by Thursday when they host the Region 1A meet that begins at 5 p.m. Scoring in that meet will also be used to determine the Northeast Conference champion.
There are two Class A regions with six teams in Region 1A and seven in Region 2A. The top 40 gymnasts in the state per event (counting the pre-qualified athletes) will advance to the state individual meet, while the top eight teams will compete for state honors.
“Watching the competition on Saturday I believe we would have done fairly well in the team competition,” said B-H coach Angela Grupe. “It will be a close battle at the region meet. I’m hoping for a fully-rested team for the regional. Ailyn Lee is also resting a muscle pull and I’m hoping to have her back.”
Defending state champion Estelline-Hendricks is the favorite to repeat and won the meet at Deuel on Saturday with a score of 140.000. Chamberlain, Sisseton, Milbank, and Deuel were all within a point and a half of each other in second place. The Lady Braves will be competing against Estelline-Hendricks, Deuel, Milbank, Sisseton, and Madison in regional competition.
Grupe points to Deuel as the favorite in the NEC title chase.
“Deuel holds the advantage in the NEC but it still has to play out,” said Grupe.
Jaelee Grupe and Ava Teveldal each posted their third qualifying score on beam on Saturday to pre-qualify for the state meet that will be held in Mitchell Feb. 13-14. Grupe is also state-qualified in floor exercise. Kennady Van Lith has qualified in all four events, Taryn Kraft is a beam qualifier, and Abby Lee has qualified in vault.
FOR FULL STATS SEE THIS WEEK'S JOURNAL
