By GARY R. RASBERRY
grasberry@dailystandard.com
COLDWATER — For a first home meet, Coldwater gymnastics
coach Jane Diller was happy about her team’s performance.
The Cavaliers easily won the team title against an under-personed
Columbus Grove team 124.5 to 79.3 at The Palace on Tuesday night.
The Bulldogs had just four girls make the trip and had just
three in three of the events.
Coldwater’s team score was close to the goal the team
set this season for meets, making Diller especially happy.
“It was really nice because a lot of the girls got to
compete in a lot of events,” said Diller. “It was
encouraging to see the girls attempt new things. We didn’t
do everything to perfection, but they tried new things and did
very well. I was very pleased with our team score. Our season
goal was 125, so we’ll bump it up a bit and hopefully
do a little better.”
Coldwater made up for it with some strong showings in the all-around.
Cavalier Danielle Rutschilling, the anchor-scorer the past two
seasons, won the all-around with a score of 32.3. Janelle Jansen
finished second with 30.3 while Ashley Kraft was third with
30.0. Jodi Stanley was fourth with 29.4.
Coldwater had some balanced scoring in most of its top scores
in close range of each other. On the vault, the Cavaliers had
seven scores between 7.5 and 7.7.
“We’re trying new vaults this season and have a
higher start value,” said Diller, referring to the fact
that different vaults have minimum scores with additional points
earned for execution. “That would bump up the score.”
Rutschilling had high overall scores in two events, recording
an 8.5 on the uneven bars and wrapping up the night with an
8.4 on the vault.
Kraft came up with the top beam score of the night with an 8.1.
Rutschilling nearly had a 3-for-4 night after scoring an 8.0
during the floor exercise, but Grove’s Melody VonAlmen
denied a perfect Cavalier night by scoring an 8.2 for high honors.
Even though the team title was wrapped up before the start,
Diller was happy of the overall team performance and effort.
“I always tell the girls, since we’ll face some
teams that may not have as many girls or they may be highly
skilled, we play as a team and work individually to do our very
best,” said Diller. “Regardless of what the other
team does, either way above us or below us, we need to do our
best and keep improving.”
Coldwater gets one more meet in before Christmas when the Cavaliers
host Troy and Findlay for a triangular meet on Tuesday starting
at 2 p.m.
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