Gymnasts Place At Fargo Meet

Sixteen gymnasts from Eastern Montana Gymnastics competed in Fargo, N.D. at the TNT Winter Challenge on Jan. 27-29. Once again leading their teams were Lina Smith and Ila Lehner.

Lehner was first, out of 40 gymnasts, in the bronze level for all-around and balance beam, and Smith was second on balance beam and third all-around, out of 71 gymnasts in the gold level. Also in the gold level with top 10 overall placings were Ava Hove, who was eighth on uneven bars, tied for fourth on balance beam and tied for fifth all-around, and Aspen Boje, who was seventh on balance beam. In bronze, Allie Olson won floor out of all 40 gymnasts. In the silver level, Peyton Cool had a 9.6 on uneven bars, which garnered her second place out of all 63 silvers.

Since there were no age groups in bronze, several other gymnasts had top 10 placings. Cora Hove was tied for sixth on balance beam, Emersyn Knuth was tied for fifth on uneven bars, Olson was tied for eighth on balance beam and tied for ninth on vault, and Paislee Hanson (in her first gymnastics meet) was tied for fifth on floor. In addition to her first places on balance beam and all-around, Lehner was fourth on vault and tied for fifth on floor.

At her first gymnastics meet, Mallory Meissner had a strong showing, placing tied for 11th on vault, tied for 12th on balance beam, tied for 14th on floor and 11th all-around. The bronze team placed second, and all six attending athletes’ scores counted toward the team score (top three scores for each event), which demonstrates how crucial each athlete is when counting team scores. EMG’s bronze team had the highest floor score and was tied for the highest balance beam score, out of five teams.

In the silver level, Cool was first on uneven bars in her age group of 13 gymnasts, as well as tied for seventh on both balance beam and floor and sixth all-around. Macy Rau, in the same age group, was tied for sixth on vault, fifth on balance beam and third on floor. In the child age group of 12 gymnasts, Jud Rehbein was sixth on vault, tied for third on uneven bars, first on balance beam and fourth on floor and all-around.

Ava Hove, Justine Massar, Aubrey Ziegler and Emma Hove competed in child age group of gold. Ava was first on balance beam, second on vault, fourth on uneven bars, eighth on floor and tied for second all-around. Massar was tied for ninth on uneven bars, tied for eighth on balance beam, third on floor and sixth all-around. Emma hit the balance beam routine she’s been working unbelievably hard at, and placed fourth. She was also seventh on vault and ninth all-around. Ziegler was tied for 10th on vault, tied for ninth on uneven bars and 10th all-around.

In the older age group of golds, comprised of 20 gymnasts, EMG once again had some top placings. Smith was tied for first on vault, tied for second on uneven bars, second on balance beam, tied for fourth on floor and first allaround. Aspen was seventh on vault, fourth on balance beam, and tied for 10th on floor and all-around. In her first meet as a gold gymnast, Ali Gibbs was ninth on uneven bars and sixth on balance beam.