Kernels’ Sadler medals in 3 events

BROOKINGS — The Mitchell gymnastics team took fifth place at the state tournament on Friday.

On Saturday, Rebecca Sadler was Mitchell’s top all-around finisher on the individual day, finishing in 15th place in the all-around. She was 17th on the beam and 14th on the bars.

Head coach Audra Rew said her team struggled with illness over the weekend, but was pleased with the way it battled through the competition.

“There were a lot of good points to the competition,” Rew said. “The kids were upset about finishing in fifth place. They have high goals and they’re going to keep working hard.”

Rew said she was also very proud of the way Sadler handled the tough competition on Saturday.

“There were some kids there that have been doing club (gymnastics) at a very high level that were not there last year,” Rew said of Sadler’s competition.

“(Sadler) is just nice and steady and we have some big goals for her next year. She’s only a freshman and we’ve got plenty of time to move things along and get her to where we want her to be.”

Rew said there were some more complicated and challenging things she could have had the team done, but she didn’t want to push her kids too hard.

“I’m a pretty cautious coach,” Rew said.

“I don’t like to let kids risk things when I don’t feel 100 percent about it. I know that the kids will get there eventually.”

Qunicy Herll got sick during competition but Rew said Herll didn’t let that affect her performance.

“(Herll) had pneumonia this weekend so that kind of put her behind,” Rew said.

“But she battled through it and reassured me that she was ready to compete and as an eighth-grader that took a ton of composure for her to fight through that.”

Ellie Rew also placed for the Kernels, she took 20th place on bars.

Tags: sports, gymnastics, updates