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The Wildcat gymnasts took first place at the Big Lake "Tropical Twist" Invitational Saturday, January 5. The Wildcats finished with a score of 130.050. The host school was second with 125.600 and Maple Lake was third with 125.450.

Wildcat senior Britni Harris was first in the vault, bars, beam and all-around and second in the floor exercise. Sam Thomsen had four personal bests and Andrea Olson, Cassie Schlegel, Maria Olson and Carissa O'Kane also earned new personal bests.

"The girls did a fantastic job. We set many personal records at this meet, which shows that the girls are working hard," said coach Brett Kjos. "I was a little worried going into this meet because of the long layoff since our last meet. But, the girls stepped up and did an outstanding job. Many of the girls have worked on new skills over winter break and this meet was the first time they performed their new routines.

"They did awesome. What I am most excited about is that we still are not firing on all cylinders and still have a lot of room to improve. We need to work even harder on our new skills and routines in the coming weeks so we can be ready to go at the section tournament. We have a very busy January and hope to improve every meet," Kjos added.

The 130.05 was the best team score of the season and the team vault score (34.65) was the highest for the Wildcats since 2002.

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