Over 350 gymnasts from throughout the province and into Manitoba took over the YRHS gymnasium this past weekend for the three-day Springers Gymnastics Invitational competition.
“We had clubs from Weyburn, Estevan, Regina, Carnduff and even teams from Manitoba such as Dauphin,” said Springers head coach and program director Jessica Ronn, adding that the event has been getting larger over the years. “We invite many clubs and some can come and can’t, but we’ve seen more athletes coming each year, which is great to see.”
The increase in numbers at the Invitational is not only good for the sport, but good for the club as well, as the Springers Invitational is not just the Yorkton club’s home competition; it’s also their greatest fundraiser. “It’s great to see so many people come here for the competition, because it’s basically our major fundraiser for the year,” offered Ronn. “We always hope for a big meet so that we can get funds to run our club and buy new equipment and things like that.”
However, the money gained from the Springers Invitational isn’t the only reason the Springers Gymnastics Club is happy to see hundreds of athletes competing at their host event.
Ronn believes gymnastics – which is recognized as a foundation sport – is one of the more beneficial sports a child can join at an early age to improve their health and speed up their development. “Gymnastics is considered a foundation sport, so it increases balance, coordination, spatial awareness, agility, and that is useful for any sport,” mentioned Ronn, continuing, “So if the kids participate in gymnastics at an early age, they could continue on to competitive gymnastics or they can move on to any other sport because they have those foundation skills to do any other sport that they want.
“That’s what we promote, and that’s what we’re proud of in our sport, the fact that it helps improve all the athletes that compete in it in not just gymnastics, but other areas and sports as well.”
Local results
In terms of competition, nearly 40 local athletes competed at the Springers Invitational, including 12 competitive athletes and 27 pre-competitive athletes, with the top local gymnast being Claire Swidzinski, who finished second overall in the JO Level Three (2006-2008) category with an overall score of 36.724. Teammate Anna Bulych finished right behind her in third place with an overall score of 36.598, while Danielle Ronn (fifth, 36.016), Katerra Schick (sixth, 35.999), Danica Signarowski (seventh, 35.873), Alexa Wagner (eighth, 35.415) and Eloise Cristo (ninth, 35.282) all finished in the top 10. Jersey Graves finished just outside the top 10 in 12th place with a respectable 34.732 score.
Matlyn Bulych – Springers lone athlete in the JO Level Three (2004-2005) category – finished fifth overall with a score of 35.658 while Emily Dumka, also Yorkton’s lone competitor in her category (Junior Olympic Six 2004-2006), took home a bronze medal with a score of 33.633.
In the Junior Olympic Six (2002-2003) category Yorkton’s Raya Cuthill finished seventh overall with a score of 25.549 after having to forgo the Bars competition due to a burn on her hand while in the Junior Olympic Six (2000-2001) category it was Santana Rathgeber finishing with a bronze medal and a 32.366 score, while Teagan Langridge had a rough competition, finishing only the Bars competition to finish well back with a 7.283 score.
In the pre-competition JO 1 category Hannah Marchand, Tori Salyn, Lea Onufreychuk, Haley Stewart, Ryann Fayant-Stephens, Brittney Kemp, Madison Wagner and Meg Onufreychuk all won gold, while Jayde Marchand, Chloe Toma, Paige Fedorowich, Avery Sudsbear, Teya Reavie, Isabella Kostelnyk, Madalyn Shabatura, Malaya Cuthill, Nina Chisholm, Kensie Wawryk and Shayna Yaholnitsky all won silver and Sury Bradford won bronze.
In the pre-competitive JO 2 category Tristyn Dycer and Alex Sauser won gold, with Sarah Dumka, Ava Love and Alaina Hoeber taking home silver medals.
The next competition for Springers Gymnastics will be the Can-Am Personal Best Invitational in Saskatoon April 23-24. They’ll then host the 2016 Provincial Gymnastics Championships at the Nexera Flexihall May 13-15.
