Izzy Olson and Brenna Deason both finished in the top 10 in the all-around as the Brainerd Warriors earned a third-place finish in the third annual Dave Maras Holiday Invitational Saturday, Dec. 15 at Brainerd High School.
During his years of coaching, Maras placed a high value on building the team through a strong youth program. That was something current head coach Tessa Poorker was a part of.
Poorker has kept the same focus and she and her staff have worked to continue to build a strong youth program. They are seeing dividends with the performance of young gymnasts like eighth-graders Olson and Deason.
"We have worked hard with our youth program and that's where we started when Dave was here and we got to put a lot of time into that with technique and a lot of different drills and gaining trust on new skills," Poorker said. "Now those kids are old enough to be part of our varsity team and continuing to develop and we are really proud of the program that we have here."
The Warriors finished with 141.5 points. which put them behind Class 1A's top-ranked Detroit Lakes, which scored 145.65 and Class 1A's eighth-ranked Big Lake 142.9.
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Led by Ellie Selisker's 9.35, Brainerd recorded the second highest team score on vault with a 37.00. Selisker's score placed her third. Olson and Deason followed with scores of 9.3 and 9.25 to get the ninth and 10th spots.
"Honestly there were a ton of people here and the crowd's energy level was crazy," Olson said. "On the vault, it was easy to start off on because you can get so much power and the bars are just fun."
Poorker was pleased with the entire team's performance on vault.
"It's our first event to start off the day and our JV kids like leading us off and they did great and our landings were there today," Poorker said. "The judge complimented us on the vault and we are working on some more difficult vaults with the hope of breaking the school record this season."
Next up was the bars where Brainerd has struggled in recent history at the Holiday Invite. That wasn't the case Saturday as Olson collected the fifth spot with an 8.85 and Brooke Jones finished 11th with an 8.35. The Warriors finished fourth with 32.75.
Deason was a top-10 finisher on beam as she scored a seventh-place 9.1. Selisker was 14th with an 8.9 and Brainerd scored a third-place 35.1. That score also put a team goal, which it had not hit yet in the first four meets, within reach.
"Our goal is always the 140 mark and today we didn't focus on the end result as much as looking at each routine," Poorker said. "We took it one step at a time and we knew that mark was there and we hit it and it was amazing."
Deason scored an eighth-place 9.3 and Worden recorded a 9.25 to give the Warriors the third-place finish overall among the eight teams.
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"I feel like I do better under pressure and I like a lot of people here," Deason said. "It brings up the energy and I feel like I compete better.
"Our team is really strong mentally and physically and I feel like we are getting stronger as the season goes on."
Rachel Steiner of Lakeville North was the individual winner of the day as she took the top spot on bars, floor and all-around.
Olson and Deason were seventh and eighth place finishers in the all-around competition.
"As a team, we are doing amazing," Olson said. "We have had three meets this week and this was our best meet. We saw Detroit Lakes here today and they are super good and I felt like that made us want to go even harder."
Team scores: 1- Detroit Lakes 145.65, 2-Big Lake 142.9, 3-Brainerd 141.5, 4-Melrose 139.75, 5-Lakeville South 139.7, 6-Lakeville North 137.05, 7-Park Cottage Grove 128.8, 8-Moorhead 128
Vault: 1-Britney Krumrel (BL) 9.6, 8-Ellie Selisker (Brd) 9.35, 9-Izzy Olson (Brd) 9.3, 10-Brenna Deason (Brd) 9.25, 16-Kenna Smith (Brd) 9.1, 18-Eden Worden (Brd) 8.85
Uneven parallel bars: 1-Rachel Steiner (LN) 9.35, 5-Olson 8.85, 11-Brooke Jones (Brd) 8.35, 21-Deason 7.9, 26-Ellie Bruggeman (Brd) 7.65, 28-Maddy Sedlachek (Brd) 7.55
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Balance beam: 1-Greta Klaphake (Mlr) 9.5, 7-Deason 9.1, 14-Selisker 8.9, 19-Sedlachek 8.6, 20-Olson 8.5, 34-Smith 7.4
Floor exercise: 1-Steiner (LN) 9.55, 8-Deason 9.3, 9-Worden 9.25, 16-Olson 9.1, 19-Smith 9.0, 23-Haley Jones (Brd) 8.75
All-around: 1-Steiner (LN) 36.85, 6-Olson 35.75, 7-Deason 35.55
Next: Brainerd hosts St. Cloud 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 20.
