Gustavus rookie Lauren Kershner scored a 9.150 to finish runner-up on the bars in Saturday's dual against UW-Eau Claire. Photo courtesy of AJ Dahm - Sport PiX.
St. Peter, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus gymnastics team closed the home portion of its 2014 schedule with a 180.275-172.250 loss to UW-Eau Claire on Saturday afternoon at the Sponberg Gymnastics Studio.
The Gusties posted individual event scores of 44.025 on the vault, 41.075 on the uneven parallel bars, 43.375 on the balance beam, and 43.775 on the floor exercise. The Blugolds went 46.075 on the vault, 44.825 on the bars, 43.425 on the beam, and 45.950 on the floor.
Gustavus’s Lauren Kershner (Fy., Maine, Ill.) turned in the team’s top finish of the season by taking runner-up on the beam with a season-best score of 9.150. In her previous four meets, Kershner averaged an 8.531 with a previous high-score of 8.600. The rookie was one of the Black and Gold’s three all-around competitors in the meet, placing second in the all-around with a score of 34.250. She finished sixth on the bars (8.800), and 12th on both the vault (8.150) and floor (8.150).
Jamie Ries (Sr., Monticello, Minn.) was the top all-around competitor of the dual, recording a 35.050. Ries earned a spot on the podium after her bars routine was scored a season-best 8.900. She also finished fifth on the vault (9.075), sixth on the floor (9.000), and eighth on the beam (8.075).
Paige Dieleman (Sr., Washington, Iowa) rounded out Gustavus’s top performers with a fourth place finish on the beam (9.075). Dieleman took third in the all-around with a score of 33.675 after posting marks of 8.950 on the vault (8th), 8.375 on the floor (11th), and 7.275 on the bars (12th).
UW-Eau Claire’s individual event winners included Kellie Dougherty on the bars (9.350) and beam (9.400), Dez Stanton on the vault (9.325), and Elizabeth Stubbs on the floor (9.375).
The Gustavus gymnastics team will be on the mats Feb. 14 when it travels to Menomonie, Wis. for a WIAC dual against UW-Stout set for 6:00 p.m.