Gymnasts fall to Baraboo

The wait was excruciating. When it ended, there was a lot to build on. Sauk Prairie’s girls gymnastics team competed for the first time in 27 days on Jan. 18 due to holidays and winter weather. And while Baraboo defeated the Eagles, 132.50-130.525, in a dual meet, Sauk Prairie took several positives from the meet. “It was challenging to be back in competition,” Eagles coach Justine Anderson said. “So it took a little bit to get going. They were a little nervous, but finished with a bang on both floor and beam.” The Eagles were without standout McKenna Breunig, who was on a soccer recruiting visit. But several others stepped up. “She is typically our strongest scorer on every event and is pretty consistent, so it’s hard to not have her with us,” Anderson said of losing Breunig. “But it was a great opportunity for some of the team to have a varsity spot, and we had some girls really step up to fill the gaps.” Sara Nehring won the all-around competition, while Claire Hartman was fourth (31.750) and Addisyn Ranzenberger was sixth (31.350). “Sara had an incredible night and she is proving to be more consistent in competition as well,” Anderson said. “She is handling the nerves of competition with lots of maturity and her scores are continuing to improve.” Nehring won the uneven bars (8.250), while Hartman was third (8.0), Kylee Ballweg was seventh (7.60) and Ranzenberger was seventh (7.050). Nehring was second on the beam (8.70), while Ballweg was third (8.550), Lauren Uselman was fourth (8.450) and Ranzenberger was seventh (7.950). Nehring was second on the vault (8.450), while Hartman was fifth (8.150), Ranzenberger was eighth (7.950) and Uselman was ninth (7.650). And on the floor, Nehring was second (8.8250), Hartman was third (8.750), Ranzenberger was sixth (8.40) and Uselman was ninth (7.80). “Addy and Kylee were both standouts for me for the night, as they competed incredibly well, and ended up both getting PRs in the all-around,” Anderson said. “They are both becoming much more consistent and have really been taking practice time seriously and it shows. “Claire got her mojo back on the floor and was beaming the entire routine — highlighted by landing her first ever full in competition and scoring her best floor score of the season. “McKenna has been our top beam scorer at every meet this season, but we still scored our team high beam score of the season while she was away. Kylee and Lauren both got personal best scores, Sara tied her PR, and Addy got within a couple tenths of her PR, so they really showed up to compete.”