Lind leads youth into season

Youth may be a constant throughout the Jamestown High School gymnastics team, but it’s a group anchored by a blue-chipper.

Senior Alex Lind, fresh off her second consecutive state diving title, leads the young Blue Jays into a season-opening triangular with Warner, S.D., and host Aberdeen, S.D., set for 5 p.m. today.

“She can do everything well,” JHS coach Dave Tews said. “There isn’t one real weak point to her. … She’s a great self-coach. That makes her a good gymnast. She can coach herself and she knows what needs to be done.”

Tews said he expects Lind’s floor exercise to be even better than last year, when she had the lead in the event at the state meet until the defending state champion scored better than her with only a few girls remaining.

“She was on top of the leaderboard with three kids to go,” Tews said. “That I would say is probably her top (event).”

Lind serves as the team’s only senior after the Jays graduated a big portion of their scoring. Behind her is a youthful group Tews is excited about. Fifteen girls are listed on the roster with eight being freshmen or younger.

Juniors Abbie Conlon, Glynna Godfrey, Jane Tang and Kaiann Arellano will be expected to contribute in some form or another, especially Arellano, who is a returning state-qualifier.

“She has all kinds of natural elegance in gymnastics,” Tews said of Arellano. “Abbie’s a hard worker. She’s been scoring on varsity on bars and occasionally on other events since she was an eighth-grader. Glynna … she’s one of those who’s right on the edge. She can help us if she does what she’s capable of. … Jane’s relatively new. She’s a very hard worker. If she wants a skill, she’s going to work very hard to get it.”

Tews was pleased with his two sophomores in Jenna Stilwell and Jayden Diemert, saying that Stilwell has “a very high upside to her routine” and that Diemert “should be able to help us out on different events.”

One of the team’s top gymnasts — freshman Erin Hillerud — is a multiple state-qualifier.

“She was one of our top all-arounders last year,” Tews said.

Savannah Kramlich and Kailey Alber are the other freshmen. Madison Mandan, Morgan Mewes, Maya Moltzen and Ligia Schulz are eighth-graders, while Hannah Schiele made varsity as a seventh-grader.

Tews said he expects growing pains along the way, but has clear-cut goals in mind.

“We’re hoping we can be respectable and get in that solid 130s (range),” Tews said. “The goal is to get to 140. If you’re in the 140s, you’re in the money.”

Sun sports writer Chris Aarhus can be reached at (701) 952-8462 or by email at caarhus@jamestownsun.com

Tags: sports, jays, gymnastics