Last year, as a junior, Jackie Bergeron flipped, swung, vaulted and twirled with all her might, but couldn’t catch St. Cloud’s Taylar Schaefer in the Girls Gymnastics AA Individual All-Around Competition.
This year, her final go at a Class AA individual title, Bergeron left no doubt. She captured three of the four events, topping Forest Lake’s Anna Phillipson for gold in the all-around, marking STMA’s first all-around champion in Class AA.
It wasn’t a slam dunk. Bergeron’s uneven bars routine was three-tenths of a point behind the leaders, knocking her off the podium in that event. But her routines on floor and the balance beam were so strong – including a nearly flawless event on the beam – that she soon had a window to the all-around title with a sold floor routine. She nailed it, putting up a 9.7 on floor exercies and propelling herself past Schaefer for the win.
Her other win came on vault, where she posted an impressive 9.825, the highest score in any event for any gymnast in the all-around competition.
As a team, STMA crushed the floor exercise, placing first, moving itself into fifth place overall. The fab five of Bergeron, Avery LeMonds, Jada Dahlheimer, Paige Herbst and Ella Goertzen put up a total of 37.725, making the Knights the ONLY team to break the 37 point mark on the floor.
On the vault, Dahlheimer, Addie Kennedy, Addy Miller, Herbst and Bergeron put up a 36.850, while Goertzen, Alyson Herfel, Herbst, LeMonds and Bergeron scored 34.875 on bars. Finally, Herfel, Goertzen, LeMonds, Herbst and Bergeron hit 35.1 on the beam.
Lakeville South – the eventual team champion, took first on valut, bars and balance beam. Their final team score of 147.4 was 2.5 points ahead of Cretin-Derham/Minnehaha Academy. In contrast, the fifth-place Knights were just eight-tenths of a point out of second, and .35 points out of third.
The Knights – champions of Section 5 for two straight seasons, put up their best finish ever to get fifth in AA. Last year they were seventh overall.
Bergeron will now turn her attention to the track season. She’s already signed her letter of intent to compete in track at University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.
Senior Jackie Bergeron tops the podium as STMA’s first ever all-around champion.
Knights gymanstics team members Avery LeMonds, Alyson Herfel, Addy Miller and Paige Herbst join champ Jackie Bergeron, center, after the individuals competition.