The Columbus North gymnastics team celebrates its fourth-place team finish in Saturday’s state finals in Muncie.
Chris Williams | For The Republic
MUNCIE — Columbus North met the goals it sought after as a team.
It was close to the very end, but the Bull Dogs prevailed in their final rotation to finish in fourth place as a team with a score of 106.850 in Saturday’s Gymnastics State Finals at Worthen Arena on the campus of Ball State University.
Valparaiso won the team championship with a 112.350, followed by runner-up Homestead with a 111.625 and Crown Point was third with 109.5.
“We’re super excited. The girls worked really hard today,” North co-coach Kaitlyn Rediker said. “It was a team effort by everyone to make us hit that. It was going into the last event we were neck-and-neck with a couple teams, and we prevailed.”
The Bull Dogs’ top gymnast, sophomore Reese Euler, put herself in good position in the all-around competition. She led after two events, but the floor ended up being her downfall. She finished fourth in the all-around with a 37.5.
Valparaiso’s Gabriella Grisafi won the all-around with a 38.025. Homestead’s Gianna Zirille and Jillian Creager were second (37.8) and third (37.775), respectively.
Euler picked up podium places by finishing second on the bars (9.475), fourth on the beam (9.45) and fifth on the vault (9.5). She finished 16th on the floor with a 9.075.
“I’m really happy with how I placed,” Euler said, “especially as a sophomore because at state we don’t see teams like Valparaiso and Crown Point and Homestead or any of them. I’m really happy to be in the top with some of the best girls in the state.”
Euler’s floor score was probably due to the routine’s progress in difficulty.
“There’s a section called the composition of the routine, and that’s basically how it’s choreographed. If the level of difficulty goes down at the end, you’re going to get hit there,” North co-coach Bob Arthur said. “She did have some minor bobbles. She was going to be doing a layout, layout front on floor, but she wisely made the second flip a tuck, so that she didn’t fall. That maybe took a little bit of composition down, as well. Obviously, when you get to this level, every little thing is going to count, and she knew that, but I know that she’s going to be fired up for next year.”
Lindsey Mullis finished 14th on the bars (8.9), 21st on both the vault (9.2) and beam (8.725) and tied for 35th on the floor to finish 16th in the all-around with 35.45. Laney Acton finished 28th on the bars (8.225), 37th on the beam (7.95) and 45th on the floor (7.375).
Hannah Perry was 32nd on the floor (8.825), 40th on the beam (7.8) and tied for 44th on the vault (8.5). Ellie McIntier was 35th on the vault (8.9), and Braden Bostic was 36th on the bars (7.6).
North scored a 26.6 on the bars, 26.125 on the beam, 26.525 on the floor and 27.6 on the bars.
The vault was the final rotation for the Bull Dogs. They were the last team to complete the routine and the last team to finish the rotation with all eyes watching them.
“That was the icing on the cake for us this season to be in that position,” Arthur said. “The girls did wonderful. I can’t say enough about them. As a team, we knew it was going to take a team effort to get us to the podium. I’m so happy because we’ve had a drought for the past four years getting on the podium. Hopefully, that will be a starting point for us and get us started next year.”
