'Cat gymnasts again beaten by St. Francis

By JEFF NORTON SPORTS EDITOR St. Francis 131.050, Chisago Lakes 129.775 Chisago Lakes’ kryptonite in gymnastics for the past five years has been St. Francis. Every year, the Saints have beaten the Wildcats en route to the North Suburban Conference championship, and three out of the four years -- and this one looks to make it four in five years -- the Wildcats have finished in second place. The Wildcats’ chances in the meet took a significant hit when senior Nicole Bean was injured just days before the meet and wasn’t able to compete. Bean is one of CL’s top gymnasts and went to the state tournament last year in the uneven bars.

They also had Courtney Schlegel, an important part of their overall score, battling the flu all week. But, the Wildcats still almost valiantly pulled off the short-handed win over St. Francis. The ‘Cats began their meet with the vault exercise, one of their strongest events. They opened with some big scores, including 8.5 and higher scores from Schlegel, Alicia Sokol and Sam Thomsen. They earned 34.075 points in the event while St. Francis scored 31.525 in the uneven bars. When they switched events, the teams drew close. The ‘Cats sans Bean, only tallied a 30.225 on the bars. Thomsen was the high scorer with an 8.375. Bean has consistently scored between 7.5 and 7.9 on the bars, and that would’ve been good for the second best score on the team and almost a full point boost for the ‘Cats. As it was, CL fell behind the Saints after they scored a 33.40 on the vault leaving the meet at 64-925-64.300 in favor of St. Francis. The balance bar is where Chisago Lakes had some struggles. Although they got a phenomenal 9.150 personal best from Thomsen on the beam and a strong 8.425 from Betsy Howerton, their supporting just wasn’t up to par in the event. The ‘Cats tallied 31.975 in event while St. Francis piled up 33.100 points in the floor exercise. The Wildcats weren’t out of it yet, though. Their floor exercise has produced some excellent scores at times this year, and this would be the best time for it. All four top girls scored over eight points, but they were mostly low 8s and weren’t enough to come back against St. Francis, who scored a strong 33.025 in the balance beam. Sokol led the ‘Cats on the floor with an 8.825. Thomsen had an 8.300, Howerton an 8.200 and Reba Berg an 8.175. The final score was 131.050-129.775, only a point and a half difference.

“We gave it all we had,” Head Coach Brett Kjos said after the match. “I’m very proud of how they competed in the face of such adversity. We just couldn’t stay on the beam. I counted on point on the beam in falls and a half point in falls on the bars. That would’ve made the difference for us. “Overall, it was a great meet, a battle right to the end.” Thomsen was the top all-arounder at the meet, scoring a 34.375, which was a personal best for the St. Cloud State-bound senior. Howerton also set a personal best in the all-around while Courtney Schlegel recorded a PB on the vault and Maddie Audette saw her first varsity action because of the injuries and set a personal best on the floor exercise. River Falls Winter Wonderland Invitational Things got even dicier for the Wildcats at their annual Wisconsin invite. Bean was still out with her injury and the flu had overcome Schlegel and left her unable to compete. That left the Wildcats with the minimum four gymnasts competing in every event -- only two other teams at the meet had more than two all-arounders. Chisago Lakes started on the floor exercise and scored a 31.300. The event was spearheaded by Thomsen and Berg’s matching 8.050s and Sokol’s 7.900 On the vault, the Wildcats were wildly consistent. Their four girls had scores that ranged from 8.200 to 8.625 with Sokol leading the way.

The ‘Cats struggled a bit in the last two events. They scored a 30.250 on the uneven bars, highlighted by Thomsen’s 8.600 and a 30.575 on the balance beam, with Thomsen again scoring over nine with a 9.025. Her score was the top mark of the meet in the event. She finished with a 34.125 all around score, good enough for second place out of the 21 all-arounders. Chisago Lakes finished sixth in the gold division and seventh overall out of 16 teams. “This was a very memorable meet,” Kjos said. “Every score counted for every girl. It was fun to see all of the teams with so many girls and we just had our four. They did awesome.” Kjos is hoping that Bean will soon be able to return from her injury and that Schlegel will be over the sickness by the next meet.