Mount Rainier used its depth of team talent to continue on track toward its third consecutive state gymnastics meet appearance with a win against John F. Kennedy Catholic in a Tuesday, January 11 dual meet in Des Moines.

Tallying 152.85 points, the Rams strongly outdistanced the Lancers’ 132.25 total.

“We did really well,” responded Ram head coach Ali Kestle. “One of our all-around performers, Bernie Ward, broke her arm in warm ups, and that’s upsetting. Other than that, we’re right where we want to be. We’ve gone to state the last two years as a team, and we’re on schedule for that.”   

Kerrie Heckel performed in the starring role for Mount Rainier. Heckel claimed the all-around competition with a total of 34.45 points while also earning first on the uneven parallel bars and the balance beam. The Ram athlete totalled 8.1 on the bars and an 8.7 on the beam. Her 9.55 on the floor exercise gained her second place, just behind the 9.65 first place total. She also finished fourth on the vault with an 8.1.

“I have my club gymnastics, but this has been really fun,” exclaimed Heckel. “All our team are best friends and cheer for each other.

Tonight, I did some things better and some things not as well as I have been doing.”

Mount Rainier also claimed a third-place finish in the all-around from Nikita Ginnett. Ginnett finished with 32.5 points, including second place finishes in the vault (8.4) and beam (8.6). The Ram gymnast also had third place finishes on the bars (6.5) and the floor (9.0).

The rest of the top six all-around spots belonged to Mount Rainier. Brianna Stoutenburgh claimed third on the vault (8.15), fourth on the bars (6.1) and sixth on the floor (with teammate Kara Young) as part of her fourth place 28.3. Next came Natalie Welch (27.5) and Chelsie Still (27.3). Young added a fourth place individual spot with a 7.85 on beam. Christiana Robinson took a fifth place 7.45 on the beam while Shannon Danneman scored 5.0 to tie for sixth on the bars.

Kennedy Catholic’s Charlotte Ditmar placed second in the all-around with 33.2 with an impressive first place score of 9.65 on the floor exercise and a first place 8.45 on the vault. She also swung to a 7.2 top spot on the bars and scored a 7.9 third place on the beam.

“I feel I could have done better,” said Ditmar. “The floor was good, but I fell on the beam.”

Ashley Knox tallied 25.65 points for the Lancers’ second best all-around spot. Knox notched an 8.05 fourth place on the floor with a 7.6 fifth place on the vault.

“Our team this year is very young,” stated Kennedy Catholic head coach Kim Katzenberger. “We have 19 freshmen, but we have gotten much better. I’m proud of them.”