Jamestown Blue Jays Take Third at State Gymnastics, Van Gilder Fourth

Jamestown High School girls gymnastics took third place at the NDHSAA State Team Gymnastics Championships held at Dickinson High School, scoring 142.083 in the team competition on Friday, Feb. 27, while host Dickinson claimed the title with 151.500 and Minot United edged Jamestown for second with 143.183, a 1.100-point margin, Jamestown Sun reported.

Dickinson continued its string of dominance, winning its 11th straight state championship and its 20th overall, sweeping the top spot in all four events and posting at least 37.500 in each rotation, Minot Daily News noted. Dickinson’s strongest event was the floor exercise at 38.633 and its uneven bars score of 37.850 beat the field by more than four points, details published after the meet show.

Jamestown’s event placings underpinned the third-place finish: the Blue Jays were second on vault and uneven bars, third on floor exercise, and fourth on balance beam with a team beam score of 35.050, according to the meet breakdown. Minot United’s late surge on beam and floor — including a 36.883 on beam — allowed Minot to overtake Jamestown for runner-up, Minot Daily News reported.

Minot coach Cassie Davis described her team’s turnaround during team day: “For team day, the girls had a shaky start in the first two events, but they gave each other a pep talk and pulled it together on beam and floor,” Davis said. She added, “They all stuck their beam routines, no one fell off. That was a goal they had. Placing second at state after a third-place finish at WDA was a major goal for the team.”

On the individual side, Dickinson senior Aspen Roadarmel repeated as state All-Around champion in the individual competition on Saturday, Feb. 28, and Jamestown Sun’s Feb. 27 individual table lists Roadarmel with a 38.700 under an All-Around heading. Jamestown senior Sutton Van Gilder finished fourth in the all-around on Feb. 28 and posted event marks during the team session that included a 9.300 on floor (10th) and an 8.167 on beam (28th). A Jamestown Sun photo of Van Gilder on vault is credited to Paul Garcia II.

Jamestown’s meet also featured strong contributions from sophomores Baynx Kirschenmann and Brooklyn Waldie, who Jamestown Sun said placed in the top 15 in the all-around and helped secure the third-place team finish. Van Gilder praised those teammates by name: “Baynx and Brooklyn have definitely stepped up and become leaders for our younger girls.” Event listings show Waldie with a 9.050 on beam (7th) and a 9.367 on floor (8th) and Kirschenmann with an 8.683 on beam (16th) and an 8.800 on floor (20th).

With five seniors graduating after the season, Jamestown Sun reported that Kirschenmann and Waldie will be the veteran presence leading next year’s Blue Jays. The final scoreboard from the state meet read Dickinson 151.500, Minot United 143.183, Jamestown 142.083, Century 137.383, Mandan 136.350, Legacy 132.300, Breckenridge-Wahpeton 113.450, and Northwest Stars 62.250, closing out a state meet that kept the champions in Dickinson and left Jamestown looking ahead to a roster transition.