5A Gymnastics: Mountain Range Wins State Title
Photo: Brad Cochi/CHSAANow
Results:
THORNTON – Last season, the Mountain Range gymnastics team snapped a lengthy streak without a championship, winning its first state title in Class 5A and first since 2007.
On Thursday at Thornton High School, the Mustangs started a new streak of winning state titles by claiming the 5A team trophy with a four-event score of 184.200.
“It was hard. Nothing we do is easy around here,” Mountain Range head coach Becky Linnenburger said. “But the girls, they find what they seek, and they worked really hard for this all season. A lot of people don’t see how hard these girls work in the gym every single day, in and out of the gym. Weekends, evenings, they’re putting their nose to the grind and they worked really hard for this one and came through.
“It was a tough night for us. We had a funky beam, for sure. We had a couple falls on beam, which lowered their spirits for a minute. But they came back stronger than ever on bars and put up one of our highs on bars. The win is never the goal for us, but coming back as the reigning state championship put a pressure on us we weren’t ready for. But we stayed focused on ourselves, we beat our school record and we got the job done.”
The Mustangs scored a 46.550 on vault, a 46.175 on the uneven bars, a 44.725 on beam and a 46.750 on floor. Their scores on vault, floor and bars were the highest of any team.
Mountain Range is now tied for seventh all-time with three team titles.
In the individual all-around competition, Arvada West’s Layla Petz placed first with a score of 38.750. She placed top three in all four events, including a win on beam with a score of 9.675.
“I’m excited; I’m proud of myself and I’m proud of my team,” Petz said. “We had an awesome meet. I think the team aspect really helped me individually and it was a great day. I was really happy about my beam. I struggle on beam, so it meant a lot that I stayed on it.”
Mountain Range’s Frankie MacAskill, who won the vault (9.900), floor (9.850) and bars (9.800), but fell on beam, finished runner-up in the all-around for the second straight season with an all-around score of 37.775.
Denver East’s Lyla Allman (37.350) was third in the all-around, Overland’s Ainsley Renner (37.275) was fourth, Broomfield’s Liliana Wojahn (36.925) was fifth, Mountain Range’s Ella Mikolajewski (36.900) was sixth, Mountain Range’s Annabelle Maier (36.750) was seventh, Pomona’s Averie Hull (36.425) was eighth and Cherry Creek’s Lauren Becker (36.400) was ninth.
Overland (181.900) finished runner-up in the team competition for the second straight season and Broomfield (181.625) was third.
Prior to Mountain Range’s recent back-to-back titles, Broomfield had won the past two. Prior to that, either Overland or Pomona had combined to win the previous eight.
The gymnastics state championships will continue this weekend after being postponed because of weather. The Class 4A team finals, originally scheduled for Friday, will take place on Saturday morning. The 4A and 5A individual finals, previously scheduled for Saturday morning, will now be held Saturday afternoon and evening.
