THORNTON – Niwot's Genevieve Saunders added to her hardware total Saturday afternoon at the 4A State Gymnastics individual event finals at Thornton High School, collecting two more gold medals and a bronze to go with her all-around state title from Friday night.
Saunders entered the event finals as the favorite to win the vault and beam, and that she did, posting a score of 9.650 on the vault and 9.700 on the beam.
"I think my favorite event today was probably beam," Saunders shared after winning the beam for a second-straight year. "I've just always loved beam. I love everything about it; just kind of being up there on top, kind of a little bit in the center of attention... I love how precise you have to be."
Saunders also took third on floor (9.475) and finished ninth on bars (8.975) after helping Niwot to a team state title Friday night.
"Honestly, no," she said, when asked if she could have scripted a better year for herself. "I'm so happy and proud of my team and myself, I just think we did so great this year.
"I owe everything to my team and coaches. They've made it such an incredible and important journey and year. We have a smaller team this year, so we've gotten much closer and really relied on each other. So, I think that support and cheering from the sideline really helped."
On the floor, Pueblo Central junior Karlee Knabenshue came away victorious, winning her first state title with a score of 9.675. She also earned a bronze medal on the bars (9.250).
"I'm just so grateful," Knabenshue said, still on a high after receiving her three medals for floor, bars and all-around. "Everything's so crazy, I don't know what to feel."
Standley Lake's Ava Vlcek was also a first-time champion, winning the uneven bars with a score of 9.475.
"Amazing… I was so excited," Vlcek said in describing how she felt when she heard her name called as the first-place finisher on bars. "I didn't think I was going to win, so I was fine with getting second. And then, you know, I didn't… I got first, so I was like 'aah!!'
"Yesterday, I killed it. So, my whole goal today was like 'it doesn't matter. I did really good yesterday, so I'm going to enjoy it today.'"
Enjoying it is what she did, especially after receiving an eighth-place medal for her all-around finish, a sixth-place medal for her beam performance and gold for her win on bars.
Other top finishers include Standley Lake's Kira White, who finished second on both vault (9.650) and floor (9.650), Palmer Ridge's Kaitlin McArthur, who took second on bars (9.425) and fifth on beam (9.325), Elizabeth's Braeleigh Melsness, who was fourth on bars (9.200) and beam (9.400), and fifth on vault (9.425), and Roosevelt's Kailiana Allen, who was third on vault (9.550) and fifth on floor (9.450).
Niwot's Charlotte O'Neill was second on beam (9.600), while sister older Lilly O'Neill took third (9.475). Niwot also placed fourth on vault, with Kylee Schlepp scoring 9.550.
Roosevelt's Liviana White placed fourth on floor (9.475) and Standley Lake's Kara Sundbye rounded out the top-five on bars with a score of 9.100.