Park gymnastics: Wolfpack vaults to win No. 1

Expectations are high for the Park gymnastics team this season.

In meet No. 1, the Wolfpack didn’t disappoint.

The Park gymnastics team began the 2010-11 season with a win over Suburban East Conference foe Stillwater on Thursday, Dec. 2, at Park High School. In the meet, the Wolfpack (1-0) scored 137.9 points to beat Stillwater, which had a 127.5 score. Park sophomore Kasondra Tulloch led the way, winning the all-around competition with a score of 36.0. Tulloch’s all-around win included first-place finishes in the vault, in the floor exercise and on the beam.

“This was a good start for the girls and the team but we all know that we have a lot of improvement that needs to be done if we want to contend for anything this season,” Park head coach Mark Sikich said.

Park’s vault performance helped lift the team to the win. Five Wolfpack gymnasts placed in the top-seven spots at the meet.

Tulloch, who was a standout gymnast for the Perpetual Motion club team the last few years, took first in the vault with a score of 9.25 and sophomore Rachel Deephouse took third place with a score of 9.025. Additionally, Kelly McKenzie was fifth with an 8.9, Sarah LaBrosse was sixth with an 8.75 and Michaela Thielfoldt was seventh place with an 8.65 score. McKenzie, LaBrosse and Thielfoldt are all freshmen.

In addition to dominating the vault, Park had the four best finishes in both the bars and in the floor exercise.

On the bars, Deephouse won the event with a 8.8 score, Tulloch was second with an 8.65, eighth-grader Sarah Schank was third with a 7.875 and McKenzie was fourth with a 7.85. In the floor exercise, Park also took the top four spots. Tulloch earned first place with a 9.525, McKenzie, who was a Class A state participant last year for East Ridge, was second with a 9.225, LaBrosse finished third with a 9.0 and Deephouse was fourth with a 8.9. On beam, Tulloch took the top spot with an 8.575 score and sophomore McKay Zurn was third with an 8.4.

In 2006-07, Park finished in third place in the state meet. However, since then, Park has been unable to send a single gymnast to the state meet.

“All in all it was a good start,” Sikich said. “We need to keep making strides in practice to continually improve for the rest of the season. The sky is the limit for this team. How bad do they want it?”

Next, Park returns to the SEC to face White Bear Lake on Thursday, Dec. 9, in White Bear Lake.

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