Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Something must be going right for the gymnastics team if the girls can take on their third meet in seven days, and despite being tired and sore, still come home with a 140.075 to 130.425 defeat of Hastings.

The Jan. 31 meet didn't reach the glowing score of a 146, but head coach Nancy Ellias suspects the busy schedule factored into the final outcome.

"Perhaps our routines reflected a tiredness at that pace," she offered.

And if a team member wasn't tired, then it seemed like they were injured. The Rangers were already without Maddie Crew (ankle) and Chelsea Uram (back), and then lost 8th grader Alyssa Yuronich when she twisted her wrist. But this being gymnastics, the girls pressed on and performed well.

"I do believe we had better bars and floor exercise routines than the scores showed," Ellias noted. "Vault and beam were somewhat similar -- just a little lower because we had a couple varsity people out of the meet."

Two varsity competitors who did participate was the dynamic duo of Nicole Paulson and Taylor Brett. Not surprisingly, after Brett was the top Ranger last week, Paulson came back to win the all-around at Hastings and Brett settled into second place. Stepping up in fine fashion was Stephanie Sampair, who completed the Forest Lake sweep with a third place in the all-around.

Paulson earned her score of 36.45 by getting a first on the vault, seconds on the uneven bars and the balance beam, and a third place on the floor exercise.

Brett was the runner-up in the all-around after taking first on the balance beam, and a second on both the vault and the floor exercise.

For Sampair, she grabbed the third spot with steady scores throughout the evening and then coming up with a first place on the bars.

With those three controlling the majority of the events, it was an added bonus to see sophomore Courtney Klein come in and take first on the floor exercise.

The Rangers loaded up on personal bests against Hastings, and the junior varsity was a part of those numbers. They knocked off the Raiders by the score of 122.6 to 97.95.

Marissa Moravec and Allie Bey were first and second, respectively, in the all-around competition, with Esther Jandrich, Adriane Kraus Amanda O'Neil and Korynn Newville picking up points for Forest Lake.

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