Dickinson sophomore Acacia Fossum sat on the mat looked behind her at the vault for a brief second wondering what happened.
The three-time defending North Dakota state all-around champion had just failed to stick her vault landing on the second attempt.
Lucky for Fossum, the vault she performed is worth 10 points.
“It wasn’t good at all,” she said with a laugh. “My hands slipped both times.”
Despite not sticking the landing on her vault Fossum finished with a score of 37.850 for the top all-around score during the Dickinson Invitational on Friday at DHS gymnasium.
“Other than the two slips, Acacia had a really good day,” Dickinson Kent Van Ells said. “Floor was better and beam was spectacular.”
In the second meet of the season, the Midgets were trying to iron out some mistakes. The three teams which competed the invitational were Jamestown, Rapid City (S.D.) Central and Rapid City (S.D.) Stevens. However, Central and Stevens didn’t have enough gymnasts for a team score.
Van Ells said fixing mistakes was a double-edged sword. There were some mistakes fixed, but new ones were made. Nonetheless, he was pleased with the way the team performed.
“I feel like this is process where we are ironing some things out and some other things they didn’t,” he said.
Fossum finished with the all-around, balance beam and uneven bars wins. She stuck back-to-back landings on her first two events. The sophomore scored a 9.450 on the bars and 9.700 on the beam.
“I thought this was one of my better meets for sure,” she said. “If I would have made my vault, I would have had a pretty good all-around score, but I’m just happy that my bars went well. I’m starting to get less nervous on beam than I have been in the past.”
Dickinson sophomore Keana Kudrna stuck both of her landings on the bars and beam.
Needless to say, after hitting back-to-back events, Kudrna was feeling pretty confident. The sophomore followed up with wins on the floor exercise (9.575) and vault (9.525). For the invitational, Kudrna finished runner-up with a 37.500.
“Having those first two stuck landings was definitely a good feeling,” Kudrna said. “I just want to keep practicing on what the judges tell me I need to do and becoming more consistent on every event. I just want to improve little by little in every meet.”
Dickinson grabbed the top three spots in the all-around, rounded out by senior Mikaela Kessel. She ended the meet with a 35.875, while placing in the top in three of the four events.
One gymnast the Midgets were hoping to get back after Christmas was junior Jill Mueller, who was out due to injury. The sophomore from Dickinson Trinity made her return on Friday competing in the bars and beam.
The Midgets have three weeks off before their next meet. The meet next Friday in Valley City was moved to Saturday, but due to Christmas break many of the gymnasts are going to be gone, so Van Ells decided to withdraw from the meet.
Dickinson’s next meet is the Bismarck Invitational on Jan. 3. The Midgets follow up with a trip to Fargo Davies at 11 a.m. Jan. 4.
“It’s hard to keep motivated when there isn’t a meet coming up,” Van Ells said. “Hopefully, we’ll use the break wisely. After Christmas, it doesn’t stop. We meet all the better competition in North Dakota.”
Dickinson Invitational
At DHS gymnasium
All around
1, Acacia Fossum, Dickinson, 37.850. 2, Keana Kudrna, Dickinson, 37.500. 3, Mikaela Kessel, Dickinson, 35.875. 4, Erin Hillerud, Jamestown, 34.750. 5, Faith Beck, Dickinson, 33.650. 6, Madison Mandan, Jamestown, 32.100. 7 (tie), Kaiann Arellano, Jamestown, 31.875; Abbie Conlon, Jamestown, 31.875. 9, Logan Haggerty, Rapid City Stevens, 31.400. 10, Maggie Ridley, Jamestown, 31.250.
Vault
1, Keana Kudrna, Dickinson, 9.525. 2, Jenna Stilwell, Jamestown, 9.300. 3, Mikaela Kessel, Dickinson, 9.275. 4 (tie), Alaina Klapperich, Rapid City Central, 9.250; Erin Hillerud, Jamestown, 9.250. 6, Acacia Fossum, Dickinson, 9.175. 7, Kailey Alber, Jamestown, 9.150. 8, Maggie Ridley, Jamestown, 9.125. 9, Ashley Solano, Rapid City Central, 9.025. 10, Meghan Ackerman, Dickinson, 8.950.
Uneven bars
1, Acacia Fossum, Dickinson, 9.450. 2, Keana Kudrna, Dickinson, 8.950. 3, Jenna Mueller, Dickinson, 8.425. 4, Jill Mueller, Dickinson, 8.250. 5, Faith Beck, Dickinson, 8.225. 6, Erin Hillerud, Jamestown, 8.125. 7 (tie), Mikaela Kessel, Dickinson, 8.075; Alexis Triebenbach, Jamestown, 8.075. 9, Logan Haggerty, Rapid City Stevens, 7.750. 10, Maggie Ridley, Jamestown, 7.700.
Balance beam
1, Acacia Fossum, Dickinson, 9.700. 2, Keana Kudrna, Dickinson, 9.450. 3 (tie), Alaina Klapperich, Rapid City Central, 9.300; Mikaela Kessel, Dickinson, 9.300. 5, Jenna Mueller, Dickinson, 9.225. 6, Jill Mueller, Dickinson, 8.900. 7, Karsen Stroh, Dickinson, 8.750. 8, Ashley Solano, Rapid City Central, 8.475. 9, Faith Beck, Dickinson, 8.425. 10, Erin Hillerud, Jamestown, 8.175.
Floor exercise
1, Keana Kudrna, Dickinson, 9.575. 2, Acacia Fossum, Dickinson, 9.525. 3, Mikaela Kessel, Dickinson, 9.225. 4, Erin Hillerud, Jamestown, 9.200. 5, Alaina Klapperich, Rapid City Central, 8.750. 6, Faith Beck, Dickinson, 8.450. 7, Madison Mandan, Jamestown, 8.375. 8, Kaiann Arellano, Jamestown, 8.250. 9, Baylee Fetch, Dickinson, 8.200. 10, Meghan Ackerman, Dickinson, 8.125.
