The Yorkton Springers Gymnastics Club hosted their home competition from Friday, April 11 to Sunday, April 13 at the Yorkton Regional High School gymnasium.
In total 60 athletes from throughout the province took part in the competitive portion of the event. Of those 60, 16 were from Springers and of those 16 a total of eight walked away with podium finishes, including 11-year-old Kaybrie Lutz.
Lutz, whose father Jerry Lutz is a coach at Springers, took the overall gold medal in the Provincial Two Tyro competition with an outstanding 49.018 score, nearly five points higher than the Provincial qualifying mark of 44.5.
"She had a total score of 49," said a very proud coach and father Jerry Lutz. "Her qualifying score only has to be a 45.5 so she had an extremely strong meet coming in first place overall."
But while Kaybrie Lutz took home the only overall first place finish for the Yorkton club, Jerry Lutz feels that her performance, which was amazing, wasn't the only spectacular one from the Yorkton girls. "Bryn Jarvis also did well in the same category," offered coach Lutz. "Bryn finished with a 48.968 all around total, finishing just .05 behind Kaybrie for first."
The other six podium finishers, Teagan Langridge (second in Prov. One Open, 46.201), Raya Cuthill (second in Prov. One Tyro, 46.734), Cassidy Stachowich (third in Prov. Three Open, 45.868), Bryn Nystrom (second, Prov. Three Novice, 47.268), Meaghan Pinno (second, Prov. Two Open, 46.118) and Jenna Schofer (third, Prov. Two Open, 46.051) also had strong performances on the weekend.
Eight other girls: Santana Rathgeber (fourth, Prov. One Open, 45.033), Emily Dumka (fifth, Prov. One Argo, 46.105), Jersey Zawatsky (fourth, Prov. One Tyro, 45.833), Erin Novak (ninth, Prov. One Tyro, 44.701), Sidney Shyiak (fourth, Prov. Three Novice, 46.701), Kiara Lutz (fourth, Prov. Two Open, 45.651), Emily Zajac (sixth, Prov. Two Open, 44.735) and Hayley Fayant-Stephens (ninth, Prov. Two Open, 30.267) also put forth strong efforts.
All 16 Springers athletes who took part in the Yorkton competition have also qualified for Provincials; the first time in recent memory that every competitive girl from the club will compete in the final event of the season. That fact, combined with the effort the girls put forth, not only in competition but in practice as well, is something that, according to Jerry Lutz, makes it easy to be proud of. "As coaches we feel like we've done our job," said the gymnastics coach, continuing. "Seeing these girls do well makes myself and the other coaches very proud."
Lutz also mentioned while he and the other coaches do everything they can to prepare the girls for the competitions, when it's time to compete that "it's up to them to do their job" and to "remember what they've learned at practice".
The Provincial competition, which all 16 girls have qualified for, will take play May 9-11 in Regina.
