×

Redette gymnasts fall to Escanaba

ESCANABA – The Escanaba gymnasts were provided with an opportunity to get back into the flow of things Wednesday night and they responded with a 115.625-103.15 victory over the Marquette Redettes.

Esky shined in vault where it grabbed four of the top five places. Junior Morgan Heidt and sophomore Lindsey Taylor shared first at 8.6 points.

“Morgan and LIndsey have been working real hard to perfect their vault and tonight they really came through,” said Esky coach Theresa Pascoe.

“All of our and Marquette’s vaulters got qualifying scores for regionals. Most of the girls who competed tonight had been away from meets for three weeks (or more). We’re still a young team (with four freshmen, two sophomores and six juniors), but we’re also a very talented team.”

Marquette’s Enola Jeever took third (8.225). Esky junior Emily Bruntjens was fourth (8.15) with classmate Erin Linderoth and Marquette’s Tauni Camilli tied for fifth (8.1).

Taylor won floor exercise (8.15) and balance beam (7.875) outright and topped the all-around standings at 30.175.

“Our floor routines looked real good,” said Pascoe. “Our girls have actually tumbled better than they showed tonight. All the girls are practicing on a spring floor at Triple A (Gymnastics). It’s hard to bring the same skills back to a mat.

“Lindsey had a very nice score on beam. This is one of the stronger groups we’ve had on beam, but we’re still taking too many falls. Once we get more meets in, I think they’ll be able to get back into a rhythm. The biggest challenge is getting the girls to believe in themselves. We need to have more difficulty in our jumps and turns. That’s how you get bonuses.”

In all-around, Taylor was followed by Linderoth (29.425) and Marquette’s Lauren Kurzawa (27.625).

Heidt gained top honors on the uneven bars by edging Marquette sophomore Kiah Staley 5.8-5.75 Linderoth placed third (5.65).

Both teams, dominated by underclassmen, had difficulty with their bar routines.

“We actually had a big improvement on bars from the beginning of the season. We had about 14 points in Marquette (on Dec. 9) and tonight we scored little more than 21. We had 29.125 points on balance beam and our highest overall score. That’s awesome. I’m happy for all our girls. They’re improving, no doubt about it. They know it takes time.”

Neither team has any seniors this year. The Redettes have just seven gymnasts, all of whom are freshmen and sophomores.

“This is a brand new team,” said Marquette coach Kris Lakenen.

“Kiah is our lone returner and this is only her second year in gymnastics.

There’s a lot for us to learn and a lot of room for improvement. We have a lot of new kids, which is okay. We’ll keep building and we’ll keep going.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today