Columbus East has opened its gymnastics season with two back to back wins after hosting Franklin Central on Tuesday.
The Olympians improved their team score by almost 2 points from last week in their 109.30 win against Franklin Central. Junior Adi Minor had a solid day placing first in all four events. East coach Nancy Kirshman was pleased with the improvement her team made.
“Improving by almost two points for a team score is big in gymnastics,” Kirshman said. “A lot of people don’t understand it’s tenths of a point. That’s a lot, and Adi is a very talented young gymnast. She is poised to do very well. She is going to hover in the 9.8 and 9.9 category all year long. She is just an outstanding gymnast and the routines she does just don’t have many mistakes.”
Sophomore Taylor Gaskill hit her handspring full vault for the first time to place second. She also placed third in the Balance beam and had two fourth place finishes in the uneven bars as well as the floor exercise. Seena Areiew placed second in the uneven bars. She also placed third in the vault and balance beam.
“Our balance beam wasn’t as quite as crisp tonight,” Kirshman said. “Seena had a very uncharacteristic fall for her and she would have had a very nice score had she not. They take half a point away from your score anytime there is a fall anywhere.”
Top finishes for Franklin Central came from Khloe Dykes who placed second in the floor exercise and the balance beam. She also placed third in the uneven bars and fourth in the vault. Kirshman said the Olympians improved on the bars despite not having the scores highest scores.
“Gymnastics is tough because somebody else is judging you, “Kirshman said. “So these judges might have seen it one way and the people we had on last Saturday might have seen it another way. So that is the hard part of gymnastics. One judge may like something and the other judge may not like it.”
East next competition will be at home against Columbus North on Jan. 8 at 7 p.m.
