PAS gymnasts solid at BSC meet




Despite the long early-morning bus ride to Waseca and opening the meet performing on their recent nemesis, the balance beam, the Pipestone Area gymnastics team turned in a solid score in placing 10th out of 13 teams at the inaugural Big South Conference championships Saturday afternoon.
Jackson County Central went toe-to-toe with the Worthington Trojans at the top of the standings with the former edging the latter 140.5-139.35 for first place. Host Waseca was back two points (137.35) in earning third place overall.
Individually, Fairmont/MCW gymnast Bryanna Peterson claimed the all-around title with a cumulative score of 35.525, while Jackson’s Abby Schneekloth (35.2) and Brielle Scheepstra (35.025) placed second and third, respectively.
The Arrows, who posted a team score of 114.075, in beating Marshall (111.625), St. James (110.875) and Blue Earth (102.775), stumbled early on the beam, but recovered throughout the day to carry momentum into the Section 3A meet, Saturday (Feb.14) in Pipestone.
“We had a talk after the beam, about competing mentally, and they had a solid performance the rest of the meet,” Pipestone Area head coach Stacie Wallace said. “It was a very long meet with 13 teams, a situation of sitting, sitting, sitting go. That’s always difficult, but it was a good practice run for sections (10 teams) and the way that will feel.”
While PAS continued to struggle on the balance beam as a team, junior Riley Mohlenkamp bucked up to earn the Arrows’ only top-20 place of the meet in the event finishing 19th with a mark of 7.85.
Aside from Mohlenkamp’s score on the beam, however, the remainder of the Arrows’ marks was well below their potential.
“Their beam is still not where I would like it to be,” Wallace said. “It’s frustrating to work an event hard in practice, see progress and consistency, and not see the fruit of that hard work in competition. That’s not across the board; Riley stuck her beam routine, and that was great, and others didn’t completely fall apart. It’s the one event, though, where we need to come together as a team if we want to see our score come up. We’ve lost a spot in team standings, the last two or three meets, because of our performance on beam.”
PAS sophomore Lizzie Breczinski (29.725), who followed Mohlenkamp (31.35) as all-around performers for the Arrows, garnered a score of 6.8 on the beam. Shantelle DesMarais added a score of 6.5, while senior Alex Wilson (6.45, 27.2 all-around) and Logan Winter (6.025) completed the Arrows’ marks in the event.
“Riley had a very good meet,” Wallace said. “I know Shantelle wasn’t happy because she’d like it to be perfect, which is what I want her to want, but she had a very nice floor routine. They all had very good events throughout the day aside from the blunders we had on beam.”
The Arrows did a good job of putting the beam behind them as perhaps their favorite event, the floor exercise, was on the horizon.
Mohlenkamp and DesMarais paced the Arrows on the floor with respective marks of 7.7 and 7.2, while Wilson (6.85), Breczinski (6.8) and Winter (6.0) helped the Arrows bounce back before heading to the vault.
PAS had just one score below an 8 in the event, and Mohlenkamp again spearheaded the Arrows’ efforts with a team-high 8.55. Breczinski was right behind her with an 8.475, and Wilson scratched out a mark of 8.25. Relative newcomers to varsity-level competition, Lexi Carstensen and Telscha Alderson, completed the Arrows team score in the vault with individual marks of 8.15 and 7.7, respectively.
Neither their favorite nor highest-scoring event of a meet, the uneven parallel bars proved the final obstacle for the Arrows in Waseca.
Breczinski and Mohlenkamp paced the Arrows with their release moves in posting respective marks of 7.65 and 7.25. Wilson added a solid score of 5.65, and PAS youngsters Aubrey Nelson (3.95) and Katie Scotting (3.7) helped the Arrows complete the long day of competition.
With Saturday’s section meet likely being the final competition of the 2014-15 campaign for the Arrows, Wallace is insistent her group continue to focus on putting their best foot forward pointing to the mental aspect of the sport as being what will help assure they are fully prepared.
“When you’re on deck, the next competitor, you should be doing whatever you have to do to prepare for what’s coming,” Wallace said. “Whether that’s visualizing your routine or whatever it is mentally that will best prepare you to go out and perform to your capabilities.”
And Wallace likely will press the issue in practice during the week.
“We’re going to work on that this week,” she said. “We’re going to practice our events in the order we’re going to compete in them this Saturday. That will help us get a feel for it. We’ll also have them perform different skills and routines solo, in front of their teammates, to add an element of performance maybe even wearing competitive leotards toward the end of the week. They’re working hard in practice, no doubt, but it’s the mental focus that we need work on.”
The Section 3A meet will begin at noon on Saturday in the PAS gymnasium.