Julia Meyer with medal, second from left.

Blue Earth Area Gymnastics Coach Sandy Oswald had a hard time hiding her disappointment last week.

The Buccaneer gymnasts failed to place in the top four at the Section Gymnastics Meet in New Prague on Friday, Feb. 19.

The team scored a 129.125, and wound up in fifth place in the eight team meet. Host New Prague won it with a 143 score.

“We have been consistently over 130 at most of our meets lately,” Oswald says. “Our high score of the year was a 134.55 at the South Central Conference Meet.”

Had the Bucs been able to match that score at the Section, it would have put them in second place. Waconia had a 133.450 for second, Mankato East a 132.3 for third, and New Ulm a 130.025 for fourth.

Julia Meyer

Glencoe-Silver Lake was sixth, Waseca seventh and St. Peter eighth.

“Our first rotation was the floor exercise, and we did OK at that – scoring a 33.650,” Oswald says. “But the second rotation was the vault. Usually we do very well, but we didn’t score as high on Friday, and it threw us off for the rest of the meet.”

The Bucs still scored a 34.450 on the vault. But, they struggled on the beam, scoring a low 28.050.

Last year BEA scored a 134.8 at the Section Meet and took home the second place trophy.

The one bright spot for this year’s Section was having Julia Meyer qualify for the State Meet, Oswald says.

Marissia Hagedorn

Meyer scored an 8.6 on the uneven parallel bars, which was good for fourth place and qualified her for the State trip.

“Julia’s best event is the balance beam, but she fell four times at the Section Meet, unfortunately,” Oswald says. “I’m happy she still gets to go to State, on the bars. She went last year on the beam.”

Also last year, Blaire Zierke went to State in all-around. This year she came close to repeating in that event. She led the Bucs with a 33.1 in all-around, but it wasn’t quite high enough to earn a State berth.

“If she could have just stuck her beam routine, she would be headed back to State,” Oswald says. Zierke scored an 8.725 in floor, 8.6 on the vault, and an 8.325 on the bars. But her score on the beam was a 7.450, dropping her out of State contention.

Cassie Thompson actually edged out Meyer in all-around. Meyer had scored a 32.525 for third on the team, while Thompson scored just a bit higher at 32.575 for second. Thompson’s best score came on the vault, where she received BEA’s highest score of the night with an 8.925.

“I thought it might have been even higher,” Oswald says. “It looked to be a solid nine performance.”

Despite the disappointing finish to the season, the Buc gymnasts can look forward to a potentially better year next year.

The team loses only one senior, Emily Clement, for next year’s squad. Clement has been a consistent performer on the beam for the Bucs.

“We have all these other girls returning, plus some strong younger ones,” Oswald says. “if we can stay healthy, we will have an excellent team.”