Lind, Nelson highlight JHS at state gymnastics meet

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John M. Steiner / The Sun Jamestown High School’s Brooke Lukach twirls in the air on vault as coach Dave Tews (right) spots during the state gymnastics meet on Saturday at the JHS gym.

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The season did not end the way the Jamestown High School gymnastics team would have liked it to.

That can’t be said for Minot and their junior star Brooklyn Bender.

The Blue Jays had just four top 15 finishes, three by freshman Alex Lind, during Saturday’s individual state meet at the Jamestown High School gym.

Lind, who missed a month of the season after a sustaining a scary crash during practice, rebounded to place fourth in on the beam, 15th on vault and 13th overall to lead the Blue Jays.

Carly Nelson, a sophomore, had the only other all-state performance, placing 10th on beam.

“We had some that were a little better than (Friday) and some that weren’t quite as good,” coach Dave Tews said. “You really have to be on your game to place in this meet. Some of our girls were just a little off today.”

It was the final meet for seniors Kaitlin Walsh, Nikki Iverson, Heidi Engels and Brittany Mittleider. Walsh, Iverson and Engels had been varsity performers since they were seventh-graders and Mittleider since her freshman year. But all fell short of placing Saturday.

“It’s tough because our seniors didn’t all have what they wanted,” Tews said. “There were certainly some emotions. It wasn’t so much that they didn’t do as well as they liked, it was more that they realized it was the final time in these events. You could really tell the ones the loved the sport.”

The Blue Jays finished fourth in the team competition on Friday with a score of 139.783. They were short of that score Saturday, although team scores are not kept during the individual meet.

The lone near-miss for the Jays came from junior Brooke Lukach, who came in 16th on beam (8.683), slightly behind Dickinson’s Shalesa Wariner’s 8.733, who was 15th.

Lind’s 9.150 on beam was the team’s top mark on the day, good for 10th. She also cleared 9.0 on the vault (9.117) and finished at 35.767 in the meet.

“It wasn’t her best meet, but considering what she went through this year, she did an awfully nice job to finish like she did,” Tews said.

Nelson (34.267) and Lukach (34.200) had the second- and third-best all around scores, and like Lind, will be back next year.

“We have some big shoes to fill next year,” Tews said. “Those seniors are going to be hard to replace.”

Bender won two events, finished second in two others and coasted to the all-around championship.

The Majettes junior finished with 38.200 overall, nearly a full point ahead of runner-up Kaylee Keller (37.483) of Bismarck.

Bender won vault (9.650) and floor (9.667). She was second on bars (9.517) and beam (9.367).

Keller won bars (9.733).

Fargo North’s Faith Marty claimed the beam with a 9.533.

Bismarck’s Mackenzie Keidel was third in the all-around with a 37.433, followed by Minot’s Samantha Huether at 37.150 and Marty with a 36.800.

Bender helped Minot to a team championship on Friday. The Majettes scored 147.000 points. Dickinson (146.417) was second.

State Gymnastics Meet

At Jamestown High School

Individual competition

Top 15 all-state

Vault

1, Brooklyn Bender, Minot, 9.650; 2, Samantha Huether, Minot, 9.550; 3, Kaylee Keller, Bismarck, 9.533; 4, Mackenzie Keidel, BHS, 9.467; 5, Toria Johnson, BHS, 9.433; T6, Faith Marty, Fargo North, 9.367; T6, Misha Taylor, Minot, 9.367; 8, Kelsey Dukart, Dickinson, 9.333; T9, Chantal Urlacher, Dickinson, 9.267; T9, Shalesa Wariner, Dickinson, 9.267; 11, Payton Ringoen, Minot, 9.150; T12, Jennifer Albers, Bismarck Century, 9.133; T12, Jessica Gabriel, Century, 9.133l T12, Melissa Bachamp, Dickinson, 9.133; 15, Alex Lind, Jamestown, 9.117.

Other JHS results

22, Kaitlin Walsh, 8.933; T24, Heidi Engels, 8.867; T24, Brittany Mittleider, 8.867; 29, Brooke Lukach, 8.833; 34, Nikki Iverson, 8.717; 37, Ashley Kronebusch, 8.567; T40 Carly Nelson, 8.333.

Bars

1, Keller, 9.733; 2, Bender, 9.517; 3, Albers, 9.383; 4, Lauren Gietzen, Century, 9.367; 5, Keidel, 9.350; 6, Brooke Sickler, Dickinson, 9.333; 7, Huether, 9.317; 8, Johnson, 9.267; 9, Brogan Burwick, Dickinson, 9.250; 10, Ringoen, 9.067; 11, Jenna Breuer, Minot, 9.067; 12, Urlacher, 9.017; 13, Taylor, 9.000; 14, Gabriel, 8.983; 15, Megan Kelley, BHS, 8.917.

JHS results

T22, Lind, 8.667; 29, Mittleider, 8.450; 30, Iverson, 8.433; T31, Engels, 8.417; 36, Lukach, 8.200; T27, Abby Conlon, 8.117; 39, Nelson, 8.067; 42, Walsh, 7.533.

Beam

1, Marty, 9.533; 2, Bender, 9.367; 3, Keidel, BHS, 9.333; 4, Lind, 9.150; 5, Albers, Century, 9.067; 6, Keller, 9.050; 7, Kelley, 9.033; 8, Ringoen, 8.983; 9, Breuer, 8.933; 10, Nelson, 8.900; T11, Jenna Mueller, Dickinson, 8.868; T11, Burwick, 8.867; T13, Huether, 8.767; T13, Mikaela Kessel, Dickinson, 8.767; 15, Wariner, 8.733.

Other JHS results

16, Lukach, 8.683; 22, Walsh, 8.383; 24, Engels, 8.283; 26, Mittleider, 8.233; 34, Iverson, 7.733.

Floor

1, Bender, 9.667; 2, T2, Taylor, 9.583; T2, Dukart, 9.583; 4, Huether, 9.517; T5, Breuer, 9.467; T5, Ringoen, 9.467; 7, Bachamp, 9.433; 8, Burwick, 9.300; 9, Keidel, 9.283; 10, Kessel, 9.250; 11, Allyson Hall, Fargo South, 9.183; 12, Keller, 9.167; 13, Marty, 9.150; 14, Wariner, 9.117; 15, Gabriel, 9.033.

JHS results

18, Nelson, 8.967; 19, Walsh, 8.933; T22, Lind, 8.833; 27, Mittleider, 8.600; T28, Engels, 8.583; T30, Lukach, 8.483; 33, Iverson, 8.433.

All around

1, Bender, 38.200; 2, Keller, 37.483; 3, Keidel, BHS, 37.433; 4, Huether, 37.150; 5, Marty, 36.800; 6, Ringoen, 36.667; 7, Burwick, 36.517; 8, Taylor, 36.383; 9, Albers, 36.367; 10, Kessel, 35.967; 11, Kelley, 35.900; 12, Breuer, 35.800; 13, Lind, 35.767; 14, Johnson, 35.750; 15, Wariner, 35.716.

Other JHS results

23, Nelson, 34.267; 24, Lukach, 34.200; T25, Mittleider, 34.150; T25, Engels, 34.150; 29, Walsh, 33.783; 30, Iverson, 33.317.

Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at daves@jamestownsun.com

Tags: high school, sports, gymnastics, jays, lind, nelson, state