Columbus North’s Hannah Perry, left, coach Bob Arthur and Emerson Chambers, right, celebrate with Peyton Hewitt after Hewitt’s performance on the bars against Bloomington South and Edgewood at Columbus North, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025.
Paige Grider | For The Republic
It wasn’t the best score of the season for Columbus North, but it was good enough to easily defeat Bloomington South and Edgewood in Thursday’s gymnastics tri match.
The Bull Dogs scored a 106.775 for a comfortable seven-point margin of victory over runner-up Panthers, who had a 99.650. Edgewood finished third with a team score of 94.950.
“The girls did a good job. It seemed like on every event, we had one or two kind of misfires from our upper-level girls that kind of brought our overall team score down,” North coach Bob Arthur said. “The depth of the girls picking it up still kept us in the hunt, and we had all our all-around people on the pedestal in at least two of the events. I can’t be disappointed in how they did it for the most part individually. We’re going to have to get everyone in sync at the same time if we want to get to the top of the heap at sectional, regional and state.”
North senior and top gymnast and Reese Euler had her ups and downs during the match on all four rotations. Euler had an uncharacteristic slip on the bars routine, and then slipped on her back tuck on her beam routine.
Euler believed she let go too early on her bail in the uneven bars, which caused the mishap to happen. It didn’t matter in the end. Euler swept all four events to claim the all-around with a 36.875.
Euler scored first on the vault (9.425), bars (9.025), beam (9.0) and floor (9.425).
“I just kept going and finishing my (bars) routine strong, and still was able to score in the 9s, and then on beam, I started out pretty strong with my series. Again, it was finishing strong. I stuck my dismount and didn’t let it affect the rest of it,” Euler said. “On the floor, I walked out on some of my passes a little bit, so just cleaning up on floor and vault almost. Then it is getting consistent on beam routine in practice, and then hopefully the bars was just a one-time deal.”
Hayden Harper finished second on the bars (8.725), third on the floor (8.95) and fourth on the vault (8.55) to finish second in the all-around (34.725). Peyton Hewitt placed second on the vault (8.7) and third in the all-around (33.95). Hannah Perry took second on the floor (9.225) and beam (8.825) and fourth on the bars (8.325) to place fourth in the all-around (33.925).
Ellie McIntier finished third on the vault (8.625) and bars (8.35).
“Overall, it’s another good win,” Arthur said. “A 106.775 is not anything to sneeze at, but we are going to have to pull it together if we’re going to be at the top of the heap when it comes down to the tournament.”
