After scoring only a 105.75 in Wednesday’s season-opening win against Franklin Central, the Columbus North gymnasts sought to make incremental improvements when they visited Columbus North on Monday.
The co-No. 9-ranked Bull Dogs did that, and they improved their overall team score by almost 2 1/2 points in picking up a 108.2 to 100.3 victory over the No. 13 Olympians.
“We had a goal coming in that every individual would try to get a tenth or two on their routines, and if that happened, then we could improve as a team,” North co-coach Sandy Freshour said. “There were some that got more than that, so we made some improvement.”
Bull Dog sophomore Emily Moore made it a clean sweep of the four individual events and the all-around, albiet with a tie with teammate Sami Heathcote on the beam. Moore scored 9.5 on the vault, 9.15 on the bars, 8.95 on the beam and 9.375 on the floor.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
Moore’s 36.975 all-around score was more than a point-and-a-half better than in the opener.
“It was definitely better than the first meet,” Moore said. “I think that was one of the best floor routines I’ve ever done and one of the best vaults, too. We had more practices inbetween there, so I felt more comfortable.”
In addition to her 8.95 on the floor, Heathcote finished second on the vault (9.375) and floor (9.25) and third on the bars (8.55) in taking second in the all-around with a 36.125.
North’s Alayne Davis finished third on the floor (9.125) and fourth on the vault (8.9) and beam (8.4) in tying for third in the all-around with a 34.25. Lindsey Mullis was second on the bars (8.675) for the Bull Dogs.
“We still have a lot of room to work on our form, but what probably made the difference is, we had half as many falls tonight (as in the first meet) as a team,” North co-coach Bob Arthur said. “Our main focus is going to be to get the endurance up a little bit more and work on those tenths and execution.”
The Olympians’ Taylen Lane tied with Davis for third in the all-around at 34.25. Lane finished third on the vault (9.05) and beam (8.5) and fourth on the floor (9.0).
East’s Reagan Mount took fourth on the bars (7.85).
“We did a few things different on floor, and Tay was able to do her vault tonight that we hadn’t done before,” East coach Nancy Kirshman said. “We just had too many falls on beam and terrible bars.”
The Bull Dogs scored a 27.775 on the vault, 26.375 on the bars, 26.3 on the beam and 27.75 on the floor. The Olympians scored 26.175 on the vault, 23.3 on the bars, 24.55 on the beam and 26.275 on the floor.
Kirshman said this meet had harder judges than the ones in East’s season opener, when East scored a 102.25 in a win against Seymour.
“We had some good things,” Kirshman said. “But we have room for improvement. Some hard work has to go in to see what you can improve on.”
