January 2: MVC gymnastics season begins Thursday

By CRAIG OTTO/craig.otto@lee.net

The chase for the Mississippi Valley Conference championship in gymnastics has been competitive just once since 2001, in 2005-06, when Holmen and Aquinas-West Salem won two league meets each. But that race could be as competitive as it’s been in quite some time this winter, beginning with Thursday’s 6:30 p.m. opening quadrangular at Tomah.

Holmen has won the last five league meets over the past two seasons, but Onalaska finished .45 of a point ahead of the Vikings at the Dec. 13 Chippewa Falls Invitational. Each of the three league contenders, Holmen, Onalaska and La Crosse, feature three top-level performers, with that group including Erin Jennings, Cassie Noel and Marissa Daniels at Holmen, Emily Mitzelfeldt, Kaitlin Klos and Sam Lass at Onalaska, and Amber Bartlett, Nikki Wolfert and Katie Korish for La Crosse. The originally scheduled opening quadrangular Dec. 16 at the La Crosse YMCA has yet to be rescheduled.

“It should be a very tight race,” Holmen coach Karen Kuhlmann said. “Onalaska, Holmen and La Crosse all are capable of winning the league this year. It should be really competitive.” Injury, layoff hamper Onalaska gymnasts

More than just about any high school sport, maintaining and improving your skill level on a day-to-day basis carries huge importance in gymnastics. With just one hour of practice in the seven days before a Dec. 23 triangular at Wisconsin Rapids with Eau Claire North, along with an injury to top competitor Emily Mitzelfeldt, Onalaska finished third at 120.75 points and dropped more than four points from its season-best score from 10 days earlier.

Mitzelfeldt, who finished one-eighth of a point short of a Division 2 state berth last winter, attempted to compete on the balance beam and uneven bars at Rapids, where he best score was still a top-10 finish, but a score of just 7.675 points on beam. With what Onalaska coach Jami Loomis called a tweaked elbow she originally sustained at Chippewa Falls Dec. 13, she was kept out of the Hilltoppers final two events. She is expected to return for Thursday’s opening Mississippi Valley Conference quadrangular at Tomah.

“Tumbling on vault or floor was very difficult for her,” Loomis said. “She and everybody else hadn’t practiced for much of the previous week, and it looked like we hadn’t practiced for much of the previous week.”

Kaitlin Klos and Samantha Lass did what they could to reel the slack. Klos was third on bars at 8.35, while also finishing sixth on beam at 8.1, leading to a second-place all-around total of 32.375. Klos improved by nearly four-tenths on her season-best on bars and two-tenths on her season-best on beam.

“We’ve started to get release moves in on bars and we’ve reconstructed almost everyone’s beam routines,” Loomis said of the short-term improvement for Klos. “She and Samantha have both already added some higher-difficulty skills on bars and beam.”

Lass made similar improvements on both events, jumping a half-point above her season-best with an 8.075 on beam and .075 of a point above her season-best on bars (8.25). Lass was third in the all-around at 32.25.

Alli McCarthy added another top-10 finish for the Hilltoppers on vault (7.8), with Klos at 8.05 and Lass at 8.0. Klos had Onalaska’s top score on floor, finishing inside the top six at 8.1.

GYMNASTICS

ONALASKA RESULTS

TRIANGULAR WITH WISCONSIN RAPIDS AND EAU CLAIRE NORTH

DEC. 23

Uneven bars

Kaitlin Klos, 8.35; Samantha Lass, 8.25; Emily Mitzelfeldt, 6.875; Jackie Nommensen, 5.65; Alli McCarthy, 5.325.

Balance beam

Lass, 8.075; Klos, 7.875; Mitzelfeldt, 7.675; McCarthy, 6.875, Nommensen, 6.675.

Floor exercise

Klos, 8.1; Lass, 7.925; McCarthy, 7.25; Nommensen, 6.7; Moira Killoran, 5.7.

Vault

Klos, 8.05; Lass, 8; McCarthy, 7.8; Nommensen, 7.3, Killoran, 6.95. Top junior varsity score, Heather Ladwig, 7.6.

All-around

Klos, 32.375; Lass, 32.25; McCarthy, 27.25, Nommensen, 26.325. Top junior varsity score, Megan Kriewald, 19.125.