For the second straight meet the Britton-Hecla gymnastics squad posted a season-high score as the Lady Braves head down the home stretch of their regular season.
Coach Angela Grupe’s squad scored 134.800 points in its final home meet of the year on Thursday to smash its previous best this season of 130.700 . B-H finished behind Class AA power Watertown with 140.750 and Class AA Huron was third at 128.950. In addition to posting its highest score of the season to date, the point total also ranks seventh in the history of the sport at the school.
The B-H junior varsity team took the team title in its final meet of the season, scoring 104.250 points to outdistance Huron with 93.800 and Watertown at 87.850. Marley Sundin was the only local event winner, taking the vault with an 8.35 effort.
On Saturday B-H travels to Madison and then competes at Deuel on Tuesday. The final regular season meet is Feb. 1 at Deuel with the Northeast Conference and regional meet set for Madison on Feb. 6.
“As we are down to our last few meets before postseason, we are really concentrating on upping our vault start values,” said Grupe. “We will need more scoring potential on vault to be competitive at state. We did get freshman Kennady Van Lith back from a foot injury on three events and she came out strong with a fourth in vault and fifth in floor exercise.”
The Lady Braves had several girls post state qualifying scores in the Thursday meet. Gymnasts must meet the state standard three times during the regular season to earn a state berth prior to the regional meet.
Abby Lee has qualified for state on vault, bars, and floor exercise, and Ava Teveldal is a beam qualifier. Jaelee Grupe, Taryn Kraft, McKenna Heer, and Van LIth all have some qualifying scores and are looking for their third to earn a state spot.
VARSITY TEAM POINTS: Watertown 140.750, Britton-Hecla 134.800, Huron 128.950
VAULT: 2. Abby Lee 8.75 4. Kennady Van LIth 8.70 6. Jaelee Grupe 8.65; McKenna Heer 8.60, Brynlee Schmieg 8.55, Ava Teveldal 8.40, Taryn Kraft 8.40
BARS: 3. Lee 8.25; Grupe 7.55, Van Lith 7.25, Heer 7.25, Kraft 6.85, Schmieg 6.30
BEAM: 4. Teveldal 9.05 6. (tie) Kraft, Grupe 8.50; Lee 7.85, Heer 7.80, Schmieg 7.40
FLOOR: 5. (tie) Van Lith, Grupe 9.10; Lee 9.00, Heer 8.70, Teveldal 8.45, Schmieg 8.00
ALL-AROUND: 4. Lee 33.85 5. Grupe 33.80; Heer 32.35, Schmieg 30.25
JV TEAM POINTS: Britton-Hecla 104.250, Huron 93.800, Watertown 87.850
BARS: 3. Ava Teveldal 5.55 5. Marley Sundin 4.35; Alexys Olson 3.45, Ady Schmieg 2.20
BEAM: 3. Ailyn Lee 7.30 4. Sundin 7.00 5. Olson 6.70 6. Schmieg 6.35; Avery Leonard 6.20, Ruthie Moeckly 5.90
FLOOR: 2. Sundin 8.15 3. Lee 7.90 4. Schmieg 7.80 6. Olson 6.95; Leonard 6.70, Moeckly 6.40
VAULT: 1. Sundin 8.35 2. Lee 8.30; Schmieg 7.80, Olson 6.10
ALL-AROUND: 3. Sundin 27.85 5. Schmieg 24.15 6. Olson 23.20
