Columbus North’s Marieme Niang competes on the vault in during the sectional gymnastics meet at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
For the first half of the 2022 gymnastics season, Columbus North had two gymnasts putting up big scores in senior Emily Moore and freshman Reese Euler.
But in high school gymnastics, teams count the top three scores on each of the four events, and for that first half of the season, the Bull Dogs had a huge dropoff between most of their second and third scores.
That trend has changed the past few meets for North. Thanks to the emergence of a few gymnasts, the Bull Dogs pulled up their scores enough to win Conference Indiana and regional titles and earn a berth in Saturday’s state finals.
“We have definitely focused on the little things like pointing our toes and staying tight,” sophomore Laney Acton said. “Every little detail counts.”
Acton scored a season-best 8.65 on the beam at last week’s Franklin Central Regional. That helped North post its highest score of the season, a 110.2.
“At the beginning of the season, we were even struggling to get our third scores out of the 6s and into the 7s,” North co-coach Bob Arthur said. “Now, those girls have progressed steadily into the 7s, and now they’re into the 8s. So that’s made a phenomenal difference in us scoring a 107 or 108 vs. a 110. Those girls have stepped it up.”
One of the third scores even has been in the 9s the past two weeks. Junior Lindsey Mullis, who is scheduled to have surgery on her left tibia, has been working on bars only and finished second in the sectional and fifth in the regional.
“We’ve been trying to do upgrades a lot, and we’ve put a lot of work into routines recently,” Mullis said.
Sophomore Alli Chambers has been the Bull Dogs’ No. 3 all-around gymnast this season. This is her first year competing in high school after coming out to practice after last season had started.
“It’s gone really well,” Chambers said. “I’ve improved a lot. It’s been nice to have as much practice time as we’ve been able to have. “Doing every little thing to get those last two tenths, whether that’s an upgrade or pointing your toes, just the motivation of wanting that 109 to 110 as a team has helped.”
While Mullis has filled in on the bars and Acton on the beam, junior Marieme Niang has been North’s fourth gymnast on the vault and floor.
“Floor, I’ve been actually really happy with recently,” Niang said. “I’ve been working a lot of new skills, and I’ve been making a lot of improvements as I’ve just tried to fix the little things. Vault, I’ve also made some improvements. It’s been a little iffy, but I’m just trying to keep going. We just try to be positive toward each other. You’ll see us cheering each other on during routines, trying to push us to be our best.”
North also has used a pair of freshmen in the postseason. Ava Hatton competed on the vault in the sectional, and Arwyn Tian did the beam in the regional.
“Our third and fourth gymnasts have been working really hard at practice to get skills to increase the value of their routines,” North co-coach Kaitlyn Rediker said. “We’re hoping to increase them a little bit more for this weekend. We’re hoping they hit their routines and do what they’ve been doing in practice.”
Arthur said the Bull Dogs are making some minor adjustments to some of the skills that might elevate a little bit of the difficulty in their routines.
“The biggest thing they have to do is just focus on the execution,” Arthur said. “If we hit routines, we’re going to be hanging with the tough guys.”
“We’ve made a lot of improvements, and if we keep putting in as much effort as we’ve been doing, especially this past week, I think we can do well this week,” Niang said.
North had the fourth-best regional team score of the nine teams who will be competing at state. The top four make the medals podium.
“I think if we stay consistent, like we have been in practice, then we have a good chance of being higher up in the scoring,” Mullis said.
“We each have set a goal to improve our routines by two or three tenths (of a point),” Acton added. “If we can all do that, then I think we can definitely be up there on the podium.”
Chambers agreed.
“We’ve definitely made a lot of improvements these past few weeks and in the postseason,” Chambers said. “If we keep that up and we keep a good attitude and keep our heads up, we’ll have a pretty good shot at getting up there.”
