Emily Moore
From the moment the 2022 gymnastics schedule came out with Columbus North hosting Franklin Central in the season opener, Bull Dog senior Emily Moore was primed for a matchup with reigning all-around state champion Austyn Dykes.
Unfortunately for Moore, who finished second to Dykes in last year’s state all-around competition, Dykes did not compete on Wednesday. Moore breezed to the all-around victory with a 37.9 to lead the Bull Dogs to a 106.3 to 88.875 win over the Flashes.
“I was excited, and then she didn’t compete, so I was a little disappointed about that,” Moore said. “I was looking forward to having the competition.”
Instead, Moore’s top competition came from her teammate, freshman Reese Euler. Euler won the floor with a 9.25 and placed second on the vault (9.525), bars (9.075) and beam (8.925) on her way to a second-place all-around finish with a 36.775.
“This was my first meet in almost three years, so I’m proud that I came out here and tried my best on all the events,” Euler said. “I definitely like the aspect that we all get to have fun, and it’s not super stressful and we can just enjoy ourselves.”
Moore, who won the state title on the beam last season, won the vault (9.6), bars (9.575) and beam (9.625) on Wednesday. A slip on the floor prevented her from winning that event, but she still finished second with a 9.1.
“I was actually really proud of myself for the first meet,” Moore said. “Practicing more and then going to more meets, we’ll just get better as we go.”
Sophomore Alli Chambers placed third on the bars (7.875) and floor (8.075) and fourth on the beam (7.35) on her way to a fourth-place all-around finish with a 31.6. Sophomore Laney Acton was fifth in the all-around with a 29.725.
“It’s a good starting point,” North co-coach Bob Arthur said. “We know we have lots of room for improvement both in execution and them in adding new skills. Being the first meet, I was pretty happy overall with how the girls came through and performed. We had very few major issues.”
The Bull Dogs were without their No. 2 returning gymnast, Lindsey Mullis, who injured a knee in practice and will be out a few weeks.
North will travel to crosstown rival Columbus East on Monday.
“I think we had a really good first meet,” North co-coach Kaitlyn Rediker said. “There’s some things we can improve on, but for the first meet of the season, I think we did really well. There are some areas that we know that we can improve on, and looking at the scores, we might make a couple changes in the routines for the upcoming meets just to see where we can make those points up.”
