Gymnasts soar to new heights as conference champs

The River Valley/Barneveld varsity girls gymnastics team had their final conference dual and their conference meet last week. RVB won both the dual and conference title.  Monday night the girls hosted Platteville/Belmont/Lancaster in a very close match won by River Valley/Barneveld with a score of 129.550 to 129.500.  “We couldn’t have cut it any closer – winning by .05 – less that the deduction for a toe that’s not pointed or a step on a landing,” said River Valley/Barneveld head coach Julie Kuhse. “But, a win is a win and it put us in first place in the SWC conference.”  Individual results for the dual meet on the vault were: McKenzie Kruse placed first with a score of 8.650, Morgan Bowell placed tenth with a score of 7.900, Katie Forseth tied for seventh with a score of 8.000, Emily Noble tied for fourth with a score of 8.100, and Sofia Sanftleben placed third with a score of 8.150.  Individual results for the dual meet on the uneven bars were: Madison Krey placed ninth with a score of 6.525, Emily Noble placed sixth with a score of 7.300, McKenzie Kruse tied for fourth with a score of 7.500, Sofia Sanftleben placed eighth with a score of 6.800, and Lorisa Shatrawka placed third with a score of 7.875.  Individual results for the dual meet on the floor exercise were: Emily Noble placed eighth with a score of 8.300, Katie Forseth placed fifth with a score of 8.450, Sofia Sanftleben placed seventh with a score of 8.350, McKenzie Kruse placed ninth with a score of 8.200, and Lorisa Shatrawka placed first with a score of 8.850.  Individual results for the dual meet on the balance beam were: McKenzie Kruse placed ninth with a score of 7.500, Katie Forseth placed seventh with a score of 7.625, Emily Noble placed fifth with a score of 8.050, Sofia Sanftleben placed second with a score of 8.750, Lorisa Shatrawka placed first with a score of 8.800.  Individual results for the dual meet on the all-around were: Sofia Sanftleben placed third with a total of 32.050 points, McKenzie Kruse placed fourth with a total of 31.850 points, and Emily Noble placed fifth with a total of 31.750 points.  “Overall, I’m proud of how the girls performed, hitting many personal bests, including Allison Williams In the all-around,” said Kuhse. “We knew it was going to be close at the conference meet, but with this win behind us, we were set up for the championship.” Thursday night the girls traveled to Dodgeville for the SWC conference meet. River Valley/Barneveld won the conference meet with 131.2500 points, followed by Platteville/Lancaster/Belmont with 129.8750 points.  “Going into the conference meet, we were in the lead for the conference championship,” explained Kuhse. “Conference dual meet win points are added to the results of the conference meet to calculate the overall conference champion. We kept the same lineup from the dual meet.  The girls were confident and focused on our team, not what PBL or others were doing. We knew that if we could finish first or second we would win the conference championship.” Individual results for conference meet on the vault were: McKenzie Kruse finished second with 9.050 points, Emily Noble and Katie Forseth tied for sixth with 8.250 points, Sofia Sanftleben placed 12th with 8.075 points, and Morgan Bowell placed 14th with 8.000 points. Individual results for conference meet on the balance beam were: Lorisa Shatrawka placed first with 8.825 points, Sofia Sanftleben placed fourth with 8.325 points, McKenzie Kruse placed seventh with 7.900 points, Emily Noble tied for 10th place with 7.650 points, and Katie Forseth placed 17th with 7.000 points. Individual results for conference meet on the uneven bars were: Lorisa Shatrawka placed first with 8.425 points, McKenzie Kruse placed sixth with 7.825 points, Madison Krey placed 14th with 7.225 points, Sofia Sanftleben placed 15th with 7.200 points, and Emily Noble tied for 17th place with 6.925 points.  Individual results for conference meet on the floor exercise were: Lorisa Shatrawka placed third with 8.900 points, McKenzie Kruse tied for sixth with 8.550 points, Sofia Sanftleben and Katie Forseth tied for ninth place with 8.400 points, and Emily Noble tied for 12th with 8.350 points. Individual results for conference meet on the all-around were: McKenzie Kruse placed third with 33.325 total points. Sofia Sanftleben placed eighth with 32.000 total points. Emily Noble placed tenth with 31.175 total points.  Adding dual meet win points to the conference meet results, RVB was crowned the 2021 SWC conference champions.  This Saturday the girls will travel to Platteville for the sectional meet with 10 other teams. WIAA is only having four sectional meets this year instead of the usual five. This increased the number of teams at the sectional from 8 to 11. “This is not an ideal situation and one we feel there were other solutions to, but we are thankful there is a tournament series and we are able to compete in it.”