Austin gymnasts fall to Owatonna

Published 4:30 am Friday, December 3, 2010

Austin's Abby Snater extends off the vault on her first run Thursday night in a dual against Owatonna at the YMCA. - Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

The Austin gymnastics team will have some adjusting to do after a 132-125.8 loss to Owatonna in at the Austin YMCA Thursday.

Austin head coach Mark Raymond said that all teams are dealing with some new rule changes and everybody’s scores are starting a little low.

“With the rule changes, I figured we’d start low, but I was a little surprised how low the scores were,” he said. “It’s going to cause us to do some thinking.”

Email newsletter signup

Austin’s best event was the vault, where they finished with score of 34.65. Carolyn Hackel had the second best score with a 9.0.

Hackel, an eighth grader, took second in the bars with a 9.25 and Abby Snater was third in that event with an 8.15.

“We looked pretty good in the bars and it’ll be a strong event for us,” Raymond said. “We need to increase our conditioning and our scores will get better.”

Abby Bickler led Austin in the beam with a second place finish of 8.45, but the Packers scores fell as only one score out of five didn’t have a fall on it.

“We had some early jitters and we weren’t able to compete our best,” Raymond said.

On the floor, Bickler took second with an 8.4 and Hackel was third with an 8.35.

“All of our girls looked pretty good, but once we get in better tumbling shape, we’ll be able to do a lot more,” Raymond said. “Tonight was an eye opening experience for some girls and it should bring motivation.”