Emily Moore
In assessing his team’s upset victory in Monday night’s Conference Indiana gymnastics meet, Columbus North co-coach Bob Arthur compared it to the Super Bowl that was played the night before.
The 10th-ranked Bull Dogs did what the Cincinnati Bengals couldn’t do against the Los Angeles Rams, and that’s finish off a title. While No. 5 Bloomington North struggled on the bars, Columbus North was consistent across all four events in outscoring the Cougars 107.275 to 105.525.
“It’s kind of like in football with the Bengals,” Arthur said. “You have to show up for four quarters. There’s four events (in gymnastics), and we have struggled bringing all four events on the same night. Tonight, we did a little better with that.”
Bloomington South finished third with a 99.5. Only three Conference Indiana schools have gymnastics teams.
The Bull Dogs’ point total was a season-high. They avanged an early-season loss in a dual meet at Bloomington North.
“We’re moving in the right direction that, so that is good,” Arthur said. “We had the advantage of being on the home equipment tonight.”
Columbus North rode the strength of its top two gymnasts. Emily Moore and Reese Euler went 1-2 in the all-around competition with a 37.5 and 37.25, respectively.
Moore, the defending state champion on the beam, bounced back from a rough day on that event in Saturday’s Connersville Invitational. She won the vault (9.65), bars (9.3) and floor (9.625) and finished fourth on the beam (8.925).
“I definitely am a lot prouder than what I did over the weekend, but I feel like I can definitely improve,” Moore said.
Reese Euler
Euler won the beam (9.325) and finished second on the vault (9.525) and bars (9.175) and third on the floor (9.225).
“I’m pretty happy with how I did,” Euler said. “I’ve been consistent the past two meets, and it’s definitely something good going toward the end of the season.”
Laney Acton finished seventh on the bars (7.6), and Marieme Niang took ninth on the floor (8.55). Alli Chambers was 10th in the all-around (30.7)
“We had some girls step up and do some good things,” Arthur said. “Marieme did a great job on floor. Ava on vault did a great job filling in for Laney, whose shoulder had been bothering her. Then, Alli got a PR on beam. We’re constantly having to work on that third and fourth score right now, and I think that’s where we’re starting to see some things come together.”
The Bull Dogs will see Bloomington North again in the Feb. 26 Columbus East Sectional, then likely again the following two weeks in the East Regional and the state finals.
“We had a really good performance,” North co-coach Kaitlyn Rediker said. “We had quite a few PRs on different events. We have areas that we still want to improve on before postseason gets here, but we’re really happy with the win today. They’ve all been working on getting new skills, cleaning up routines, and I think today finally showed that all our hard work in the gym has been paying off.”
