Dickinson High wins state gymnastics title

• Chantal Urlacher

Courtesy Photo by Robbie Kudrna Above, Dickinson senior Chantal Urlacher flies from one bar to the other during the uneven bars event Saturday night during the team competition at the North Dakota state gymnastics meet at the Valley City High School gymnasium. Urlacher and the Midgets ran away with their first state championship since 2008, scoring a 149.917.
• Mikaela Kessel

Photo by John M. Steiner / Forum News Service Dickinson junior Mikaela Kessel does a flip on the balance beam while head coach Kent Van Ells watches Friday during the North Dakota state gymnastics meet at the Valley City High School gymnasium.
• Acacia Fossum

Courtesy Photo by Robbie Kudrna Dickinson freshman Acacia Fossum leaps on the balance beam Friday night during the team competition at the North Dakota state gymnastics meet at the Valley City High School gymnasium.

Talk about it

VALLEY CITY — The Dickinson High gymnastics team is no longer second best.

After four consecutive runner-up finishes at the North Dakota State gymnastics meet, the Midgets put themselves back on top in a big way Friday.

Dickinson routed the competition at the Valley City High School gymnasium, scoring a 149.917 to beat runner-up Minot by 4.5 points during the team competition at the state meet.

“We had easily the best meet of the year,” Dickinson head coach Kent Van Ells said. “What a time to do it.”

After winning back-to-back state titles in 2007 and 2008, the Midgets spent four years in second place behind Minot.

This year, they left no doubt.

As a team, Dickinson won every event, scoring best on the floor exercise with a 38.117.

The Midgets had a 37.8 on vault, 37.3 on the uneven bars and a 36.7 on the balance beam. They won every event by at least six-tenths of a point.

Van Ells said opening up the meet with a nearly flawless performance on the vault set the tone for a title.

“The first event we had was vault and at the end of that event, we had a feeling it was going to be hard for everyone to catch us,” Van Ells said. “Vault has not been our strongest event over the years. In the past, Minot has seemed to get an edge on us because of vault and come out ahead of us, quite often.”

Freshman Keana Kudrna made sure that didn’t happen. She scored a 9.650 for the best vault score while freshman Acacia Fossum was fourth with a 9.533 and senior Mckenzie Kostelecky was sixth at 9.4.

Fossum will vie for her third consecutive state all-around championship Saturday in the individual competition and set the bar high with Friday’s performance.

She had the top all-around score with a 38.467, outpacing Bismarck’s Kaylee Keller (37.7) and Jamestown’s Alex Lind (37.567).

She also won the uneven bars at 9.733, was second on the floor exercise at 9.667 — just behind teammate Mikaela Kessel’s 9.683 — and was third on the balance beam with a 9.533.

“I say that in that we really hit well,” Van Ells said.

The individual competition, where gymnastics compete for state titles in each event and the all-around, begins at 1 p.m. CST Saturday.

North Dakota state meet

At Valley City High School

Team competition

Team scores: 1, Dickinson, 149.917. 2, Minot 145.417. 3, Fargo, 144.117. 4, Bismarck High, 144.100. 5, Jamestown, 139.850. 6, Bismarck Century, 139 117. 7, Valley City, 137.117. 8, Fargo Davies, 132.833.

Vault

1, Dickinson, 37.800. 2, Fargo, 37.183. 3, Jamestown, 36.733. 4, Bismarck High, 36.633. 5, Minot, 36.567. 6, Bismarck Century, 36.517. 7, Fargo Davies, 35.233. 8, Valley City, 35.083.

Uneven bars

1, Dickinson, 37.300. 2, Minot, 36.667. 3, Bismarck High, 35.667. 4, Jamestown, 34.850. 5, Fargo, 34.700. 6, Bismarck Century, 34.367. 7, Valley City, 33.500. 8, Fargo Davies, 31.000.

Balance beam

1, Dickinson, 36.700. 2, Minot, 36.033. 3, Fargo, 35.383. 4, Valley City, 33.950. 5, Bismarck High, 32.967. 6, Jamestown, 32.833. 7, Bismarck Century, 32.833. 8, Fargo Davies, 32.583.

Floor exercise

1, Dickinson, 38.117. 2, Fargo, 36.850. 3, Bismarck High, 36.500. 4, Minot, 36.150. 5, Bismarck Century, 35.400. 6, Jamestown, 35.300. 7, Valley City, 34.583. 8, Fargo Davies, 34.017.

Individual results from team competition

Note: Top 10 and Dickinson finishers are listed.

All around

1, Acacia Fossum, D, 38.467. 2, Kaylee Keller, Bismarck, 37.7. 3, Alex Lind, J, 37.567. 4, Jessica Gabriel, BC, 37.383. 5, Faith Marty, Fargo, 37.017. 6, Mikaela Kessel, D, 37.0. 7, Madison Reiter, M, 36.983. 8, Kiara Bock, FD, 9, Tori Carroll, Fargo, 36.383. 10, Jenna Breuer, Minot, 36.217. 11, Chantal Urlacher, D, 36.100. 12, Mckenzie Kostelecky, D, 36.067.

Vault

1, Keana Kudrna, Dickinson, 9.650. 2, Tori Carroll, Fargo, 9.617. 3, Faith Marty, Fargo, 9.55. 4, Fossum, D, 9.533. 5, Alex Lind, J, 9.433. 6, Mckenzie Kostelecky, D, 9.4. 7, Hannah Werchau, M, 9.333. 8, Sam Huether, M, 9.317. 9, Whittney Perrin, BC, 9.3. 10, Gabriel, BC, 9.283. 13T, Mikaela Kessel, D, 9.217. 18, Chantal Urlacher, D, 9.100. 30, Jill Mueller, D, 8.833.

Uneven bars

1, Fossum, D, 9.733. 2, Keller, Bismarck, 9.667. 3, Reiter, M, 9.583. 4, Lind, J, 9.533. 5, Gabriel, BC, 9.5. 6, Kudrna, D, 9.433. 7, Chantal Urlacher, D, 9.333. 8, Hannah Werchau, M, 9.250. 9T, Natasha Usselman, F; Jenna Breuer, M, 9.15. 15, Mckenzie Kostelecky, D, 8.800. 20, Mikaela Kessel, D, 8.567. 25, Jenna Muellor, D, 8.383.

Balance beam

1, Faith Marty, F, 9.683. 2, Bock, Davies, 9.617. 3T, Fossum, D; Kessel, D, 9.533. 5T, Keller, Bismarck; Breuer, M, 9.367. 7, Reiter, M, 9.117. 8, Jenna Mueller, D, 9.033. 9, Gabriel, BC, 9.017. 10T, Carroll, F; Lind, J, 9.0. 20, Mckenzie Kostelecky, D, 8.600. 24, Chantal Urlacher, D, 8.300.

Floor exercise

1, Kessel, D, 9.683. 2, Fossum, D, 9.667. 3, Lind, J, 9.6. 4, Gabriel, BC, 9.583. 5T, Kudrna, D; Keller, Bismarck, 9.4. 7, Reiter, M, 9.383. 8, Urlacher, D, 9.367. 9, Marty, F, 9.333. 10, Mckenzie Kostelecky, D; Breuer, M, 9.267. 19, Jill Mueller, D, 8.950.

Tags: dickinson midgets, sports, midgets, gymnastics, updates, preps