Eight different Yorkton gymnasts found the podium in single events at the Queen City Kinsmen Gymnastics Club Invitational on Saturday, March 15, while three of the Springers competitors also reached the podium with their combined score from all four events, vault, bars, beam and floor.
Raya Cuthill finished third overall in the Provincial One TYRO group with a combined score of 45.634 thanks in large part to her second place finish on the beam where she 11.600, just .267 behind overall gold medalist Halee Martin (Saskatoon Marian) and .66 points ahead of fellow Springers gymnast Jersey Zawatsky.
Zawatsky, meanwhile, finished sixth overall with a combined score of 44.851 but was the only gymnast to knock Marian's Martin off the top of the podium in a single event scoring 11.950 on the bars, .150 higher than Martin, who finished first in the other three categories.
Erin Novak also competed in the Provincial One TYRO competition and finished ninth overall with a respectable 43.363 score.
Emily Dumka was the only competitor from Springers in the Provincial One ARGO category. Dumka placed seventh out of 22 gymnasts with a 45.068 score; a score good enough to qualify her for Provincials.
Springers Gymnastics also had just one entrant in the Provincial One OPEN category. Yorkton's Santana Rathgeber struggled at times during the competition, however that's expected as Rathgeber was one of the youngest gymnasts in her category. She finished tenth overall with a 40.218 score.
While many of the Provincial One girls finished middle of the pack in their respective categories all but one qualified for Provincials; something Provincial One coach Jerry Lutz said is due to their strength, not just on the physical side of things, but mentally as well. "A lot of this sport is a mental confidence and strength," said Lutz. "They've (the girls) learned the skills here and they do them every day but when they get in front of judges their nerves sometimes get to them and they sometimes make mistakes.
"However all but one of them have qualified for Provincials so far and they are all constantly improving so all in all I'm very proud of them."
Springers Gymnastics also had a total of three girls compete at the Provincial Three level as well as seven in the Provincial Two category.
Bryn Nystrom placed third overall in the Provincial Three Novice group with a total score of 45.769, finishing first on the beam (12.334) and third in both her vault (11.934) and floor 12.067) routines while Sidney Shyiak finished in last place, eighth overall (44.567), despite a second place finish in the vault exercise with a 12.200 score against some very tough competition.
Yorkton's lone competitor in the Provincial Three OPEN category was 17-year-old Cassidy Stachowich.
Stachowich finished in fifth overall with a 44.335 total score but was steady in all events with her highest finish fourth in vault (12.100) and lowest sixth on the bars (10.467).
Brynn Jarvis started off well in the Provincial Two TYRO competition claiming second overall in her vault exercise with a 12.234 score. A ninth place finish on the bars and an uncharacteristic 16th place finish on the beam resulted in Jarvis finishing in a tie for ninth overall with Alexa Cullen of Regina with a 46.368 score.
Kaybrie Lutz of Yorkton also competed in the Provincial Two TYRO category and finished 12th overall with a combined score of 45.268.
Nearly half the competitors in the in the Provincial Two OPEN category represented Springers with Kiara Lutz placing the highest. The elder Lutz sister finished third overall with a 45.502 score thanks to an outstanding 12.234 score on the bars while attempting the most difficult routine out of all 11 competitors.
Kiara Lutz also found the podium with her floor routine where she placed third with a 12.234 score.
Two other Yorkton gymnasts also made it to the podium in single events. Emily Zajac finished first overall on the beam with an 11.834 score while Meaghan Pinno took home third place on the bars with an 11.567 score.
Overall Zajac finished fourth (45.335) while Pinno finished 10th (23.301). Two other Yorkton gymnasts, Jenna Schofer and Hayley Fayant-Stephens finished sixth (43.136) and eighth (42.901) respectively.
"I'm really proud of them," said Provincial Two and Three coach Todd Appel. "Some of them, even though they didn't get the score they maybe should have deserved for the hard work that they've done, have still made progress and shown some skills at this last competition that they didn't do before."
Appel went on to mention that his girls have "shown a slow but steady progression" and that they "haven't peaked yet".
Appel also fully expects the girls who have yet to qualify for Provincials to do so in the upcoming competitions. "We've still got a few more that need to qualify so there is still some hard work to come yet but I expect to have everyone qualified after these next couple competitions."
