Gymnasts hope to make run at state

It wasn’t their best meet of the year. Far from. Still, Sauk Prairie’s girls gymnastics team did enough at the Badger Conference meet last Saturday to lock down a second place finish in the overall conference standings. Mount Horeb won the conference title with a 139.7250 team score. Monona Grove (137.250) and Sauk Prairie (135.8250) rounded out the top three. The Eagles finished second in the dual meet season, though, with a 6-1 record. So after combining the regular season with the conference meet, Sauk Prairie finished second in the overall standings. Now, with the postseason here, the Eagles will turn the page. “The biggest focus this week will be on getting everyone healthy and staying healthy,” Sauk Prairie coach Justine Anderson said. “We’ve had lots of colds and girls have been generally run down. Practices will be a little lighter this week and focused on quality over quantity, and also reminding them to have some fun because that is when they perform their best routines.” McKenna Breunig was fifth in the all-around competition with a 34.80, while Claire Hartman added a 34.050 and Lyla Annen scored a 32.0750. The Eagles started on the vault and struggled. Breunig scored an 8.30, while the Eagles also counted scores from Annen (8.150), Kylee Ballweg (8.050) and Adisyn Ranzenberger (8.050). “It was a bit of a struggle, as both Claire and McKenna did not hit their vaults, and we had the lowest team score in the Conference on the event,” Anderson said. “However, the girls were able to put it behind them and have an incredible bar set.” That’s for sure. Breunig and Ballweg tied for fifth place finishes on the uneven bars with 8.70s. Ballweg was seventh with an 8.50 and Annen posted an 8.30. “We had three girls on the podium for the event,” Anderson said. “We also had the highest team score on bars, which was a huge turnaround from vault.” On the balance beam, Breunig was third with a 9.050, while Uselman was fifth (8.80). Sauk Prairie also counted scores from Hartman (8.1750) and Annen (7.6250). “Beam was much wobblier than it’s been, and we had a few falls and missed connections, but still both Lauren and McKenna placed,” Anderson said. Then on the floor exercise, Hartman was fifth with a 9.1750 and Uselman was eighth (8.90). The Eagles also counted scores from Breunig (8.750) and Ranzenberger (8.60). “We had a couple of missed connections, but still overall scored well,” Anderson said. “Addy also got a PR on the event and Lauren was just shy of hers.” Now, the Eagles head to the WIAA Division 2 Dodgeville Sectional Saturday at 10 a.m. where they’ll square off with Baraboo, the Dodgeville co-op team, Platteville/Belmont/Lancaster, Prairie du Chien/Fennimore, Reedsburg, River Valley/Barneveld, and Southwestern’s co-op team. The top two teams and the top five individuals in each event (vault, bars, beam, floor and all-around) qualify for the state meet March 7-8 at Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High School.   “Looking forward to sending some girls — and hopefully the whole team — to state,” Anderson said.