HIGH MARKS

When it came to performing at a high level in Monday’s crosstown gymnastics meet, Claire Thompson had a simple formula.

“It’s just ‘Do what you do in practice and try not to be nervous,’” Thompson said.

The Columbus North sophomore was a model of consistency all night. She scored at least a 9.4 on every event and posted the state’s best all-around score this year, a 37.85, to lead the Bull Dogs to a 111.95-106.55 win at Columbus East.

North’s team score is the best in the state this year by nearly three points.

“This early in the season, that is phenomenal,” North co-coach Bob Arthur said. “We still have areas to clean up. We did not have everybody get their best scores on every event, so we still have a little bit of an open ceiling.”

Thompson also posted the state’s best score in winning the beam with a 9.475. She also won the bars (9.425) and finished third on the vault (9.55) and floor (9.4).

East sophomore Adi Minor, who came into the meet with the state’s best beam score (9.5), notched the state’s top vault score with a 9.675 on Monday. She also finished third on the bars (9.025) and beam (9.175) and fourth on the floor (9.375).

Minor edged North’s Katrina May 37.25-37.2 for second in the all-around.

“Bars was a little rough for everyone (from East) with a fall from Abby (Lewis) and a fall from me,” Minor said. “But other than that, we all worked together as a team, and we just had fun tonight.”

May finished second on the beam (9.375) and floor (9.475) and fourth on the vault (9.5) and bars (8.85). North’s Ashley Holliday won the floor (9.575) and took second on the vault (9.6) and bars (9.1) and fourth in the all-around (36.9).

Meanwhile, the Olympians recorded the state’s fifth-best team score, improving by two-tenths of a point from their previous meet against Franklin Central.

East’s Seena Greiwe finished fourth on the beam (8.975) and took fifth in the all-around (34.9). Lewis was sixth in the all-around with a 34.4.

The meet went on as scheduled, despite both schools being closed on Monday because of bad weather.

“We were out of sync,” East coach Nancy Kirshman said. “Our kids don’t do well when we don’t go to school. We made some mistakes and did some things better. But we’ll get there. We just have to keep moving forward.”

That’s also the case with the Bull Dogs, who improved their team score by more than two points over Thursday’s season-opening win at Bloomington North.

“I’m working with a great group of people,” North co-coach Sandy Freshour said. “We have really good energy, a lot of great friendships on the team, good attitudes, good leadership from the captains, and it’s making the year so far a lot of fun.”