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MARQUETTE — Negaunee and Marquette may be rivals in every sport the two schools have both offer, but when it comes to gymnastics, it’s more of a friendly competition between the Miners and Redettes.

It wasn’t the first time the two sides have met this season, and it certainly won’t be the last. MSHS claimed victory this time on Wednesday, topping Negaunee 122.4 to 108.9 to win the dual meet held at Marquette’s Barb Crill Gymnasium.

Similar to last Friday’s Marquette Invitational, the top individual battle came down to the Redettes’ Haddie Ketzenberger and the Miners’ May Waters.

Negaunee's Meghan Niemi prepares for her floor routine at a high school gymnastics dual meet with Marquette at the MSHS Barb Crill Gymnasium on Wednesday night. (Journal photo by Ryan Spitza)

Ketzenberger was the top all-around gymnast at Friday’s meet with Waters finishing in runner-up. The MSHS junior and NHS senior swapped their positions Wednesday, with Waters edging Ketzenberger in the all-around category, 34.25 to 34.05, despite Ketzenberger taking first place in three of four events.

Waters achieved an impressive 8.4 on the bars to claim victory. Ketzenberger won the vault, beam and floor routines, however, notching an 8.8 on both the vault and beam and 8.95 on the floor.

MSHS head coach Bridget Johnson said it’s always fun to watch Waters and Ketzenberger duke it out for top all-around honors. More importantly, it was the first time this season the Redettes achieved a threshold team score, needing three more to advance to team regionals at the end of the season.

“Haddie and May are always battling it out,” she said. “May had an amazing bar set (tonight) to beat out Haddie. Next week we’ll see what happens.

“We finally got our first team score at 122 and we only need three more to go to regionals as a team. I really think we can do it.”

Johnson added it was nice to earn a win over the Miners before seeing them in their home gym on Tuesday for another dual meet.

“With so few teams in the (Upper Peninsula), we do a lot of flip-flopping,” she said. “We have a lot of meets with Negaunee, which is awesome because we love them. It’s almost like we’re one big U.P. team and it’s fun to be together. We’re just going to keep working on consistency and really focus on keeping our routines clean, as well as doing the same things we did (tonight).”

NHS head coach Eyre Becker said her team accomplished its goal of breaking the 100-point mark despite the defeat. Becker also credited Waters for her top spot in the all-around.

“Our goal was to break 100 and we’re progressively making our way up to 110,” she said. “That was our goal for (tonight), but we had 108 and that’s OK. We had a really nice showing by May Waters. I know she was disappointed that she didn’t best Haddie in the other events but she did take first in the all-around and that was a really nice victory for her. She and Haddie have been competitors since they were essentially in middle school.”

Becker added that her team’s strengths and weaknesses showed, but the things that need to be shored up are minor and she’s confident that her team will be more competitive down the stretch.

“We continue to struggle with the beam as a team,” she said. “Vault and bars are our strengths. If our girls can learn how to perform on the floor as opposed to just doing skills, we might be more competitive with Marquette, who had an awesome showing (tonight).

“We’re looking forward to hosting Marquette (on Tuesday) and trying to close the gap.”

Six gymnasts were eligible for all-around honors. Following Waters and Ketzenberger were Marquette’s Quinn Arntsen in third with 25.875 points and Lizzy Burzynski in fourth with 25.85. Negaunee’s Skye Clinton was fifth with 25.2, followed by the Redettes’ Haylee Vickers sixth with 22.85.

Ketzenberger’s 8.8 on the beam edged Waters, who had 8.6. Following them was Marquette’s Tally Rasmussen in third with 7.9, while the Redettes’ Grace Henning and Julia King tied for fourth each with 7.75. Negaunee’s Kya Curtis rounded out the top five with 7.2.

Ketzenberger’s 8.95 edged Waters’ 8.6 in the floor exercise while King (8.3) and Henning (8.25) finished third and fourth, respectively. Marquette’s Ozzy Newcomb was fifth with 7.15.

On the vault, Waters scored 8.65 for second place behind Ketzenberger’s 8.8, while King was third with 8.5, Clinton fourth with 8.2 and Negaunee’s Olivia Krook fifth with 8.05.

Waters was the best on the bars with her 8.4, followed by Ketzenberger second with 7.5. Henning was third for the Redettes with 6.0, followed by MSHS’ Ginger Randall in fourth with 5.825 and Burzynski fifth with 5.025. Negaunee’s next top finisher was Clinton in sixth, scoring 4.675.

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.