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Trio of gymnasts will ‘meet’ again Saturday
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Wednesday, 20 February 2008
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Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor
Unlike last winter, where the Forest Lake gymnasts were a perplexing no-show at the state meet, the Rangers will have not one, not two, but three girls participating this weekend at St. Paul’s Roy Wilkins Auditorium.
And from a team’s perspective, although Forest Lake didn’t have enough oomph to get past favorite Cambridge-Isanti at the Section 7AA meet, the Rangers did complete their season with their highest team score.
“Wow, what a great meet the girls had,” head coach Nancy Ellias said after Friday’s competition. “I was pretty pleased when it was over.”
Forest Lake came in second place overall, finishing behind Cambridge, 145.95 to 143.925. Wrapping up the top three positions was St. Francis, who was operating without its top all-around gymnast in Kasey Halverson.
Beyond landing in the number two spot, the Rangers were thrilled to see three individuals — Taylor Brett, Maddie Crew and Chelsie Uram — advance to state, and do it all while putting up their highest marks on the vault, uneven bars and floor exercise.
“Even with that we could have done better on beam,” Ellias pointed out.
That event has been a major source of frustration for the Rangers this year, but a week after hitting all of their routines against Hastings, the girls couldn’t match the perfect five-for-five showing on Feb. 15.
With Cambridge also having a case of the slips on the balance beam, Ellias thought her squad might burst through an opening that could take them to St. Paul. But the Bluejackets were superior in another event, and that had an impact on who will represent the section.
“Their floor (exercise) scores were so high we couldn’t catch them,” Ellias admitted. “While they may be beatable, we weren’t able to make up the difference in floor.”
Since coming back from her dislocated knee injury that occurred before the holidays, Uram had focused on getting back in form for the section meet and participating in the all-around. It turned out to be an attainable goal, as the senior began to wrap up her career with personal best scores on the vault, the uneven bars and the all-around.
At one point, Uram and co-captain Crew were thinking sections would be their final time to perform, but Ellias knew better after the coaches previewed the qualifiers.
“It was really hard to come back into the gym with a straight face,” she said. “I was so happy for the kids, and especially Taylor, Maddie and Chelsea...one more time, this Saturday.”
Brett took first on the vault, second on bars, fourth on the balance beam and first in the all-around. Uram will compete at state after finishing fourth on the vault, and Crew came in second on the floor exercise and fourth in the all-around.
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