ing her Yurchenko vault. She ….
ing her Yurchenko vault. She edged Jayme Jirikowic of Valders-Roncalli by one-tenth of a point to win it. Bilz nearly equaled her personal-best with a thirdplace score of 8.35 and Ulrich tied Bilz with her 8.35 as she threw her tsuk vault for the first time this winter.
Wanke’s landing wasn’t quite where she wanted it to be on her Yurchenko, but the vault overall was good enough to tie Kaukauna’s Hailey Brittnacher for eighth place at 8.15 and Malchow tied for 11th with her 8.1.
The uneven bars were next. The Raiders totaled 32.8 points, just 0.025 shy of their best score of the year. However, four personal-best scores in five routines made it a big day.
“We had an excellent day on bars,” Cain said. “They did a nice job. I was pretty proud of them for that.”
Malchow led the way with her personal- best score of 8.575, while Ulrich took second with a personal-best 8.35. Wanke placed third with an 8.05 that beat her previous best by 0.05 points. Krause took sixth out of 25 entrants with her 7.825 with just a couple of pauses, according to Cain, stopping her from reaching personal- best territory. Purdy placed seventh with her new best score of 7.775, a tenth higher than her previous best.
The Raiders still didn’t reach their peak on the balance beam, but they still hit a season-high at 33.15 points, led by Wanke’s second-place score of 8.6. Ulrich was right there with an 8.5 that was good for third and Malchow tied Markesan’s Morgan Amend for fourth at 8.1. Purdy continued her best day at the varsity level with an eighth-place score of 7.9 that was just off her best score from last year of 8.033. Krause tied for 16th at 6.95. Jirikowic won the event at 8.75.
“We didn’t have as many falls as we’ve had in previous meets,” Cain said. “We had more of what you’d call easy fixes that the girls can fix and they need to fix. I basically talked to them about that (Monday). We’re serious here now. We need to get some stuff done. The beam is where we should be scoring a 34 or higher for the skills that they have and the value they have in those skills and also those routines.”
As usual, Medford was outstanding in the floor exercise, scoring a season-high 34.6 points. Wanke and Ulrich tied for first with 8.8s that weren’t far from personal- bests. Malchow got a personal-best with her third-place score of 8.7. Krause tied Waupun’s Nicole Roecker for fifth at 8.3 and Purdy raised her score to 7.9, tying Katie Thomsen of Valders-Roncalli for eighth.
Ulrich’s 34.0 all-around points were a season-best and gave her the meet championship, four-tenths ahead of Wanke. Malchow was fourth with 33.475, just 0.025 behind Jirikowic. Krause was seventh with 31.825 points.
