The first meet is about knocking off the rust.
However, the defending state champion Dickinson High gymnastics team didn’t have much rust to knock off.
The Midgets nabbed the top-three all-around spots en route to a team win at the Milo Dullum meet on Friday at the DHS gymnasium.
“You could tell it was the first meet,” Dickinson head coach Kent Van Ells said. “There were some things that really excited me and they did really well. In some cases, it almost surprised me. There were some broken routines and that it showed it’s early. I’m really happy.”
As a whole the Midgets attempted many new routines. For the most part, Dickinson stuck a majority of the landings.
“In the first meet, you always have a couple of flaws, but there is definitely a lot of room for improvement,” Dickinson sophomore Keana Kudrna said. “Overall, it was a really fun meet to have and it was exciting to get back on the floor.”
Dickinson’s Acacia Fossum - the three-time defending state all-around champion - landed her vault routine on her second practice run. She followed up with sticking the landing on the first attempt her vault routine. However, when she walked off the mat her right big toe started cramping up and it continued throughout the meet.
It didn’t bother Fossum.
“I was fine, but it was cramping really bad,” she said.
The sophomore won three of the four events - vault (9.650), balance beam (9.275) and uneven bars (9.250) - to win the all-around with a combined score of 37.825. Fossum also finished second in floor exercise (9.300).
“I’m so glad it is over,” she said with a laugh. “It went a lot better than I expected it to. There are things we all need to work on, but it was good first meet for us.”
Kudrna won the floor with a 9.525 and finished runner-up in the all-around.
In Kudrna’s first pass on her floor exercise, she was landed a double back flip. She said she had all the confidence in the world after sticking the landing.
“I was all smiles after that,” she said with a smile. “It was just a lot of confidence that going into that routine and once I landed it I couldn’t have been happier with that routine.”
Dickinson finished with a team total of 146.475. Wahpeton came in runner-up with a 124.300 and Mandan rounded out the top three with 103.825.
The Midgets’ senior Mikaela Kessel placed third in the all-around (36.150). Jenna Mueller took third in beam (9.050) and bars (8.900).
Dickinson also had a wealth of underclassmen score well. Faith Beck - an eighth-grader - finished fourth in the bars, while Dacia Rambousek had three top 10 finishes.
The Midgets are hoping to work out a couple kinks in each routine in time for the Dickinson High Invitational at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
“There are definitely some things that need some work,” Van Ells said.
Kudrna added: “We all have our minor flaws, but we all hit our big stuff that we needed to.”
Milo Dullum meet
At DHS gymnasium
Team scores: 1, Dickinson 146.475. 2, Wahpeton 124.300. 3, Mandan 103.825
All around
1, Acacia Fossum, Dickinson, 37.825. 2, Keana Kudrna, Dickinson, 37.075. 3, Mikaela Kessel, Dickinson, 36.150. 4, Mckenzie Swallow, Mandan, 33.500. 5, Faith Beck, Dickinson, 32.875. 6, Jaysea Bowers, Mandan, 32.400. 7, Mikki Braun, Wahpeton, 32.075. 8, Lizzie Brown, Wahpeton, 31.900. 9, Rachelle Lewis, Wahpeton, 29.625. 10, Kiara Bassingthwaite, Wahpeton, 28.525.
Vault
1, Acacia Fossum, Dickinson, 9.650. 2, Keana Kudrna, Dickinson, 9.475. 3, Mikaela Kessel, Dickinson, 9.150. 4, Kennedy Wixo, Wahpeton, 9.100. 5, Mikki Braun, Wahpeton, 9.025. 6, Elise Pietron, Wahpeton, 8.900. 7, Dacia Rambousek, Dickinson, 8.875. 8, Jaysea Bowers, Mandan, 8.700. 9, Lizzie Brown, Wahpeton, 8.675. 10 (tie), Rachelle Lewis, Wahpeton, 8.625; Chelsy Filbert, Wahpeton, 8.625.
Uneven bars
1, Acacia Fossum, Dickinson, 9.250. 2, Keana Kudrna, Dickinson, 9.150. 3, Jenna Mueller, Dickinson, 8.900. 4, Faith Beck, Dickinson, 8.825. 5, Mikaela Kessel, Dickinson, 8.525. 6, Mckenzie Swallow, Mandan, 7.900. 7, Lizzie Brown, Wahpeton, 7.800. 8, Meghan Ackerman, Dickinson, 7.675. 9, Jaysea Bowers, Mandan, 7.600. 10, Kiara Bassingthwaite, Wahpeton, 7.400.
Balance beam
1, Acacia Fossum, Dickinson, 9.625. 2, Mikaela Kessel, Dickinson, 9.275. 3, Jenna Mueller, Dickinson, 9.050. 4, Keana Kudrna, Dickinson, 8.925. 5, Mckenzie Swallow, Mandan, 8.550. 6, Jaysea Bowers, Mandan, 7.775. 7, Mikki Braun, Wahpeton, 7.750. 8, Dacia Rambousek, Dickinson, 7.675. 9, Lizzie Brown, Wahpeton, 7.450. 10 (tie), Karsen Stroh, Dickinson, 7.375; Faith Beck, Dickinson, 7.375.
Floor exercise
1, Keana Kudrna, Dickinson, 9.525. 2, Acacia Fossum, Dickinson, 9.300. 3, Mikaela Kessel, Dickinson, 9.200. 4, Mckenzie Swallow, Mandan, 8.600. 5, Jaysea Bowers, Mandan, 8.325. 6, Baylee Fetch, Dickinson, 8.300. 7, Mikki Braun, Wahpeton, 8.200. 8, Faith Beck, Dickinson, 8.150. 9, Dacia Rambousek, Dickinson, 8.100. 10, Lizzie Brown, Wahpeton, 7.975.
