Columbus North’s Reese Euler competes on the bars in the Conference Indiana meet at Columbus North, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023.
Paige Grider | For The Republic
The Columbus North gymnasts won by the narrowest of margins.
Monday’s Conference Indiana meet was tied between the Bull Dogs and Bloomington North heading into the final apparatus, with Columbus North on the floor and the Cougars on the beam. The sixth-ranked Bull Dogs edged out No. 7 Bloomington North 109.0 to 108.35 to claim the championship. Bloomington South was third with a 103.7.
Following the awards ceremony, the coaching staff of the Bull Dogs were pied in the face. Early in the season, the coaching staff made a goal for the gymnasts if they reached 109 or better during the season, they’d all be pied. The coaching staff held up their end of the bargain as whipped cream covered their faces.
“They took advantage of that tonight,” Columbus North co-coach Bob Arthur said after being pied in the face. “It was a good night for us. I really didn’t think we were going to get there earlier in the evening, but we got it.”
Bull Dog sophomore Reese Euler won the all-around competition, sweeping all four individual events to become all-around champion with a 38.450. She placed first on the vault (9.65), bars (9.6), beam (9.55) and floor (9.65).
“It feels really good, especially going into sectional and especially for our team score to build consistency,” Euler said. “We got a 108 on Saturday at Connersville (Invitational). Going into today, we had the goal to keep growing our team score and keep moving on, and consistency is something we’re focusing on.”
Columbus North’s Lindsey Mullis finished second on the bars (9.3), third on the vault (9.050), tied for fourth on the floor (9.5) and placed fifth on the beam (8.85) for an all-around score 36.7, which gave her second. Laney Acton tied for fourth on the vault (8.7) to finish ninth in the all-around with a 33.15.
The Bull Dogs will have more than a week-and-a-half off until its next meet, which will be the Franklin Central Sectional on Feb. 24.
“We’re starting to peak at the right time, especially with sectional coming around the corner,” Columbus North co-coach Kaitlyn Rediker said. “This is the time that we want our routines to be starting to peak up, and having those high scores is awesome. We’ll continue to work on our routines, working on maybe adding some new skills and then working on maybe getting some people coming in that have been cleared now due to injury.”
