MADISON -- The Mitchell High School gymnastics team won a triangular Thursday in Madison.
Mitchell, the two-time defending Class AA state champions, finished with a 143.8 to beat Madison, the 15-time defending Class A champions, who finished with 138.5. Brookings was third with a 135.9.
"I thought all in all tonight was a good night," Mitchell coach Audra Rew said. "We didn't have our best night, but that's kind of to be expected after being in school all day and traveling up to a small meet."
Individually, Mitchell was led by Amelia Rew, who won the all-around with a 37.7, beating Brookings' Courtney Krishnan, was second with a 36.35. Mitchell also got a third-place finish from Kendell Smith (35.85) and a fourth-place finish from Tessa Dee (35.7). Laura Blom of Madison was fifth.
Rew won all four rotations on the way to her all-around title. She won beam with an 8.85, bars with a 9.35, vault with a 9.85 and floor with a 9.65.
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Smith's best finish came on her best event, the balance beam. She placed third with an 8.6, and also was fourth on floor (9.325) and bars (8.8).
"Kendell had a great day -- she hit all four events," Rew said of Smith, who had a state-qualifying score in the all-around. "The beam was scoring extremely low. Kendell's performance was very good, but the judges were just low for the day."
Dee's best finish also came on her best event -- floor exercise. She finished with a 9.45 on floor, and also finished in a four-way tie for third on vault with a 9.25, a tie that also included Mitchell's Molly Cahoy. Dee was also fourth on beam with an 8.35.
"Tessa had some nagging aches and pains so she wasn't able to do her normal routines," said Rew, who added that Cahoy's vault score qualified her for state on that event.
Thursday's triangular was the Kernels' final competitive meet before the Eastern South Dakota Conference Meet Feb. 7 in Watertown. However, the Kernels will host an exhibition Saturday at the Knight of Columbus building on Second and Kimball. MEGA gymnastics club will have a competition for the younger gymnasts at 11 a.m., and the high school gymnasts will have an exhibition that follows at 1 p.m. The team will be accepting free-will donations.
