PREP GYMNASTICS: Trojan gymnasts edge RV

REDWOOD FALLS — The Worthington gymnastics team is improving.

In their first meet back from the Holiday break, the Trojans earned a conference victory, defeating Redwood Valley by a narrow margin.

WHS finished with 122.2 points, while the Cardinals charted 121.825.

“It’s our first meet on the road, so that’s scary sometimes,” Trojan head coach Joni Reitmeier said. “To come right off of Christmas break and go from our first day of school to our first meet back, we did really well I thought. Obviously, there are some areas we need to work on with execution and amplitude, but overall, I think we did a really good job. We scored about two points higher than our last meet, so that’s always exciting. Things are starting to look up for us again. As a coach, I’m really pleased with how they performed.”

Tara Svalland had a solid all-around night for the Trojans.

She was first on the vault with a 9.375, first on the floor with an 8.85, third on the beam with a 7.65 and first in the all-around with a 33.175.

Anna Koepsell was first on the beam with a 7.9, while Sam Thuringer had an 8.55 on the vault to finish third.

“We’re not where we want to be, we haven’t reached our goal yet, but it’s early in January,” Reitmeier said. “By the end of January is where we want to start peaking. We have time to polish some things up and stick some more beam routines. We only have up to go from here.”

The Trojans will be at a tournament in Marshall on Saturday.

In junior varsity action, Ellen Dudley finished first in both the vault and floor as the Trojans swept the top three places in both events.

Dudley had an 8.4 on the vault and a 7.4 on the floor.

Koepsell was second on the vault with an 8.2, while Haley Gravenhof and Kara Honius tied for third with an 8.0.

Gravenhof was second on the floor with a 7.3, while Kelsey Simons was third with a 7.1.

The Trojans finished with a 106.25 to win the JV event.

Tags: sports, prep, gymnastics, trojans