Monday night’s city gymnastics meet had plenty of star power, with the defending state team champion Columbus North and three of the top six individuals from last year’s state all-around competition.
They certainly didn’t disappoint the packed house in North’s Gym 2. Columbus East junior Adi Minor won the all-around, but the Bull Dogs took the team title 109.85-107.525.
Minor, who finished sixth in the state in the all-around last season, was the star of stars in Monday’s meet. She won the vault (9.75), beam (9.775) and floor (9.5) and finished second on the bars (9.525) to score a 38.55.
“Floor was a little shaky, and bars was not very good on my dismount,” Minor said. “But for the East-North meet, people put a lot more pressure on themselves than they need to, so I think it went really well.”
Defending state bars, beam and all-around champion Claire Thompson took second in the all-around with a 37.25. The North junior won the bars (9.7) and was second on the floor (9.35), third on the vault (9.4) and fourth on the beam (8.8).
“I definitely think there’s room to improve on some things,” Thompson said. “I feel like we’re still getting our beginning-of-the-season jitters out. We have a lot of new freshmen coming in, and I’m sure they’re really nervous. But we have a lot of good talent, and I’m proud of how everyone is doing, no matter what the scores are.”
Bull Dogs senior Ashley Holliday, the 2015 state bars champion and fifth-place finisher in last year’s all-around, took third in the all-around with a 36.45. She was second on the bault (9.65) and third on the bars (9.375) and beam (8.825).
Thompson and Holliday both had a fall on the beam, and Holliday had a fall on the floor.
“They’ve had a tremendous amount of pressure as they’ve moved along in the years,” North co-coach Sandy Freshour said. “Then last year, with the pinnacle of winning and Claire winning three events, I think today showed a little bit of how they’re feeling some pressure, so we’re not going to dwell on it. We’re going to move on and do what we do.”
North freshman Sami Heathcote finished fourth in the all-around with a 35.75. She took second on the beam (8.9), was fourth on the vault (9.1) and bars (8.75) and tied with teammate Ashley Niebrugge for fourth on the floor (9.0).
East’s Seena Greiwe finished third on the floor (9.05) and fifth in the all-around (35.0). North’s Taylor Gaskill was sixth in the all-around (33.975).
The Bull Dogs’ team score improved from a 109.2 in Thursday’s season-opening win against Bloomington North. The Olympians’ Monday total was a little below the 109.3 they put up in last week’s win against Franklin Central.
While the Bull Dogs did the customary Olympic rotation (vault-bars-beam-floor), East started on bars, followed by vault, floor and beam.
“You drop two points, you’re not pleased with the team score,” East coach Nancy Kirshman said. “You can’t come over here and just because you have to do beam last, give up the ship. That’s what we’ve done for the past three years that we’ve come here.”
