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Reigning Section 3A gymnastics champions, the Worthington Trojans, showed why they’re ranked fourth in the state when they visited Luverne Dec. 7.
Worthington captured the meet win over the Cardinals 140.475 to 131.700.
The Trojans swept all four events along with the all-around title in their almost nine-point win over the Cardinals.
The Cardinals kept the meet close on two of the events with combined team scores of 35.125 for Luverne and 36.5 for Worthington on the vault, and 34.050 to 35.575 on the floor.
The Trojans widened the team’s point spread on the bars 34.275 to 30.675 and the beam 34.125 to 31.850.
Worthington posted the top scores in each event. Hali Bullerman earned a 9.3 on the vault, 8.950 on beam, 9.125 on floor and 36.225 in the all-around. Teammate Mekyla Nystrom earned the top bars score with a 9.075.
Individually, three Cardinals scored in the top five. Freshman Ella Reisdorfer placed third on the bars (8.550), fifth on beam (8.3) and second on the floor (8.975). She finished third in the all-around (34.725).
Freshman Amira Cowell placed fifth on the vault (8.9), fourth on beam (8.4) and tied for fifth place with Worthington’s Mekyla Nystrom with scores of 8.7. Cowell’s 33.935 earned her fifth place in the all-around.
Sophomore Sarah deCesare finished fifth in the all-around with a score of 31.350.
Worthington also won the junior varsity meet with a score of 131.750 to Luverne’s 110.950.
Luverne’s varsity team point total was a three-point improvement from the opening meet of the season on Dec. 2.
Coach Phoebe Flom said her athletes are settling down with each competition. She said they will focus on adding a higher level of skills to the bars, floor and beam events. The increase skill level transfers into higher scores if completed in competition.
“We need to work on connections,” Flom said. “While we had sticks (fewer falls) on the beam, we missed out on the event requirements and bonuses from not putting two leaps/skills together to get extra points.”
Friday’s blizzard postponed the St. James Snowflake Invitational. Luverne was one of five teams scheduled to compete at the event.
Luverne’s next meet is Thursday, Dec. 16, against the Pipestone Area Arrows in Pipestone.
Individual varsity scoreboard
•Vault: Cowell 8.925, Reisdorfer 8.9, Kianna Winter and Tiana Lais both 8.65, deCesare 8.2
•Bars: Reisdorfer 8.55, Cowell 7.9, deCesare 7.275, Addyson Mann 6.95, Kendra Thorson 6.8
•Beam: Cowell 8.4, Reisdorfer 8.3, deCesare 7.7, Mann 7.45, Thorson 7.3
•Floor: Reisdorfer 8.975, Cowell 8.7, Winter 8.2, deCesare 8.175, Mann 7.45
•All-around: Reisdorfer 34.725, Cowell 33.925, deCesare 31.350.