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Two outstanding Luverne sophomore gymnasts competed at the state gymnastics individual tournament at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul Saturday, Feb. 25.
“I’m very proud of the girls’ performances at state. I thought they did a great job,” head coach Phoebe Flom said. “It’s a lot of pressure to go up against the best of the best.”
Sophomore Ella Reisdorfer made her fourth appearance at the state tournament, and it was her second consecutive year competing in the all-around competition.
Sophomore Amira Cowell competed in her second state gymnastics tournament.
“Ella and Amira should both be very proud of their performance at state and of their season as a whole,” Flom said.
“I can’t believe it’s over; it seems to have flown by so fast. We had such a cohesive group of girls who just made the whole season a dream. … We accomplished all of our goals so I would say it was a success. I’m already looking forward to next year.”
Reisdorfer’s all-around score Saturday was 34.337 placing her 24th overall and beating her 2022 all-around score of 32.950.
In the vault she scored a 9.250, up from last year’s 8.900, and on the bars she scored a 7.975, up from last year’s 7.125.
Reisdorfer has competed in the bars event for the past four years. In 2021 she posted a bar score of 8.900 and in 2020 she scored a 7.875.
On the balance beam her 8.950 was a significant bump over her 7.775 beam score last year.
On the floor Reisdorfer tried a few new skills and scored an 8.125, down from last year’s 9.150.
“I know Ella was disappointed in her floor,” Flom said. “We had worked all week on adding some new skills so when it didn’t go as expected she was bummed. … We had good vaults and I thought the girls did great bar routines. The scoring was a little tight so that is hard to swallow.”
Cowell scored 9.050 on the vault, beating her 2020 performance of 8.975, and on the uneven parallel bars Saturday she scored 7.775.
Flom reflected on what she described as an exceptional season.
“The best part of the state experience is to be on the same team as the other girls in your section,” she said.
“The girls you usually compete against are now on the same team, and they support and cheer each other on.”