VHS gymnasts place fifth at state meet

The Tanager gymnastics team placed fifth in the South Dakota Class A Championships on Friday, Feb. 17 at the newly constructed Aberdeen High School gymnasium. The Vermillion Tanagers scored 123.246 points.

The Class A champions for the 13th consecutive time was the Madison High School Bulldogs. Madison tied a national consecutive meet record with their victory. The final place finishes for the A Team event were: 1. Madison (141.9), 2. Britton-Hecla (129.1), 3. Milbank (126.7), 4. Hot Springs (125.6), 5. Vermillion (123.5), 6. Wagner (122.6), 7. Stanley County (120.7), 8. Chamberlain (120.7) and 9. Duel (115.6).

"With all the injuries and adversity that we had this year, I'm very proud of our team," offered Coach Mark Upward. "We couldn't have done much better on team day."

The Tanagers were led on team day by Senior Tristen Upward who "stuck" her beam routine and had one of her best performances on floor, and eighth-grader Amber Walker, who had a season best in each of her four events on team day. "Amber definitely set the stage for the rest of her high school career with her performances today," added Upward.

Individual competition was on Saturday with medals presented to the top 20 placers in each event. Commented coach Upward � "Individual day was very difficult for the Tanagers, as they had a hard time carrying over the adrenaline from team day. Tristen had performed her best floor routine of the year, but fell just outside the top 20, in 23rd place. Upward next took her efforts to the balance beam, and was unable to find that perfect routine, as she fell on her free roll. (A fall on the beam and you're out of the top 20), and she finished 29th on the beam. Elly Melby placed 21st in the vault competition missing a medal by .033 points. Emily Renner placed 33rd in the uneven parallel bars competition with a 6.8 score. Junior DeNell Dykstra also suffered a fall in her beam routine and finished 31st in that competition."

The Tanagers were represented in the All-Around competition by two participants � Junior Calle Sorensen, who finished 13th on the bars, 23rd on vault, 31st on floor X, and 46th on beam. Her four scores placed her 23rd in All-Around with a 29.499 score.

Amber Walker also competed in All-Around and finished in the top 20 with a 19th place finish. She was 16th on floor X (8.2), 18th on beam (7.633), 35th on bars (6.5), and 12th on vault (8.533).

Coach Upward concluded his evaluation of the season as follows: "I am proud of our team, in the way they fought back and never gave up. This team set the pace for us to work on next year. We need to take this ?can do' attitude and use it to improve our performances next season."