THE HASTINGS
Thursday, May 12, 2022GIM girls show off skills at Xcel Regional meet
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
A group of nine young gymnasts from
GIM Athletics in Middleville qualified for
the Region 5 Xcel Regional Championships
that were held at Kellogg Arena in Battle
Creek last weekend.
That group included Abby Ainsworth,
Jasmine Devries, Lily Devries, Maisie
Klingensmith, Grace Kotrba, Alleeah
Kruisenga, Addi Miller and Bristal Schnell
who qualified for the regional by putting
together strong scores at the Xcel Bronze,
Silver and Gold Michigan State Champion-
ship April 22-24, as well as Annalyse Rock
who earned her regional spot for her perfor-
mance at the March 25-27 Xcel Platinum/
Diamond Michigan State Championship.
All-around scores of 36.00 points in the
Silver competitions and 35.50 in the Gold,
Platinum and Diamond competitions need-
ed to be achieved at the state meets to earn
spots in the regional contests.
Bristal Schnell placed third in her Silver
Junior A Division at the regional in Battle
Creek with an all-around score of 37.550.
Schnell had her best scores yet on the vault,
the bars and the beam, and was just a tenth
of a point off her top score on the floor, justa tenth of a point off the state meet where
she set her personal best in that event. She
had a great score of 9.675 on the bars which
was good for fourth in her division and a
score of 9.525 on the beam which was third
best in her division.
Ainsworth and Lily Devries competed in
the Xcel Gold competitions over the week-
end, with Ainsworth in the Child C Division
and Lily in the Senior A Division.
Ainsworth was as high as seventh in an
event, the floor exercise where she put up a
score of 9.500. She also tied for tenth in the
vault with a score of 8.925. Both those
those scores are new personal bests in com-
petition and she also improved her personal
best on the beam up to 9.250. She moved
her personal best score in the all-around up
to 36.500.
Lily Devries had one of her best days yet
since moving up to the Gold level. She
matched her best all-around score at 36.
and on the beam at 8.900, and she had her
best score on the floor yet at 9.550.
Jasmine Devries, Klingensmith, Kotrba,
Kruisenga and Miller competed on the Xcel
Silver level at the regional.
Kruisenga put together her best all-
around score yet at 36.550 in her Junior CDivision, and had her best score ever on the
bars at 9.400 which was fifth-best in her
division.
Miller competed in the Child A Division
and earned her best scores ever on the vault
at 8.950 and and the bars at 9.350.
Kotrba was in the Junior F Division and
she set a new personal record with her floor
routine that earned her 9.275 points and was
the fourth best of anyone in her division.
Also competing in the Junior F Division,
Klingensmith was right near her best on the
vault, bars and beam just missing personal
records in those by hundredths of a point.
Jasmine Devries was in the Silver Junior
A Division with Schnell. She improved her
personal best score in the vault to 9.000 as
a highlight of the weekend.
Rock was injured into the lead-up to
regionals and didn’t get to compete. She
earned her chance to compete in regionals
by tallying her best Platinum Level all-
around score ever at the Diamond/Platinum
State Championships. She tallied 35.
points in the all-around at the state champi-
onships in March in the Child B division.
That performance included a new floor
routine best of 9.200 and a new top plati-
num score on the beam of 8.725.Gymnastics In Motion gymnasts (front from left ) Addi Miller, Abby Ainsworth, Grace
Kotrba, Bristal Schnell, (back) Jasmine Devries, Lily Devries, Annalyse Rock, Maisie
Klingensmith and Alleeah Kruisenga all performed so well at their state meets that
they earned the right to compete in last weekend's Region 5 Xcel Regional
Championships at Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek. Rock qualified for the regional meet
with her performance at the Xcel Platinum/Diamond Michigan State March 25-27 while
the rest of the group earned their state spots for their performance at the Xcel Bronze,
Silver and Gold Michigan State Championship April 22-24.
Saxon softball drops two
against Harper Creek
Valerie Slaughter
Contributing Writer
The lady Saxon’s softball team faced Inter-
state 8 opponent, Harper Creek, at home on
Tuesday night. Hastings was unable to keep
up with the Beavers’ strong offense and hit-
ting game. The Saxons lost the first game
17-2 and the second game 16-1.
Early in the first game, Morgan Deal hit a
double that pushed one run through, but the
Beaver’s continued to outscore the Saxons.
Saxon sophomore Victoria Jerzyk started in
the pitcher’s circle for the night, pitching
three innings and allowing 14 runs. Junior
Cassidee Easey came in for the final inning.
In the second game of the double header,
the Saxon’s fell behind early and couldn’tmake up the runs, giving up 16 runs. Easey
pitched game two for the Saxons and had one
strike out.
Deal and Zoey Bennett had two hits a piece
for the night and Phoebe Schantz had one hit.
Carly Frazer and Deal both had one RBI for
the night. The Saxons will play again Thurs-
day night at Jackson Northwest.
Hastings faced off against Hopkins in a
pair of non-conference ballgames last Thurs-
day, May 5, falling 16-1 and 17-0.
Isabelle Storm was 2-for-2 in the leadoff
spot and scored a run for the Saxons in the
16-1 defeat. Sophia Sunior knocked her in
with an RBI single.
A single by Bennett was the only hit for the
Saxons in the shut out loss against the Vikings.Saxons finish off I-8 soccer
regular season home Friday
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Hastings varsity girls’
soccer team will finish off the
Interstate-8 Athletic Conference
regular season with a tough
match-up on the turf inside Baum
Stadium at Johnson Field Friday
in Hastings taking on the Mar-
shall Redhawks.
Hastings visited Parma West-
ern Wednesday looking to
improve on its 1-3-1 conference
record.
The Saxons finished in a draw
for the first time this season
Monday at Jackson Northwest,
tying the Mounties 2-2.
A 2-0 lead got away from the
Saxon in Jackson. Hastings
scored on a penalty kick midway
through the first half and then
tallied a second goal midway
through the second half. Bri
Barnes and Raegen Morrison had
the two Hastings goals with Lau-
ren Lamphere earning an assist.
Hastings head coach Tim
Schoessel said his girls played a
solid first half, but after the Sax-
ons scored that second goal they
struggled to push the Northwest
offensive attack out of its end of
the field.
Northwest got its first goal on a
direct kick from just outside of
the 18 with a little less than 15
minutes to play. The shot just
found its way by the reach of
Saxon goalkeeper Dekota Blough.
The second Northwest goal
came following a corner kick.
The Mounties knocked the ball
out of a scrum and into the corner
of the net.
Blough made ten saves in the
match.
The Hastings girls were 8-3-
overall heading into the Wednes-
day match at Western.
The Saxons were bested 1-
by visiting Harper Creek inside
Baum Stadium at Johnson Field
last Friday.
The Beavers scored in the
eighth minute of play and then
held on for the one-goal win.
Harper Creek’s Mallory Flan-
ders bounded a pass ahead softly
to the top of the box where
teammate Alyssa Smith got a
tough on it before Blough could
get out to it. Smith chased it
down from there and tapped it
into the open net.
While the Beavers put a bit
more pressure forward than the
Saxons were able to the remain-
der of the evening, Hastings still
had its chances. Barnes had a
free kick snagged by the Beaver
keeper and had a long pass into
the Harper Creek box in the sec-
ond half just miss finding the feet
of Lamphere who was squeezed
out by the Beaver defenders.
Blough did a good job of
cleaning things up around herbox and was saved from having
to make too many great saves by
the defense of Hannah Crozier,
Abby Gaskill, Abigail Byyk-
konen, Kimber Fenstemaker andMolly Patton which was solid
around her. Morrison did a good
job hustling back to assist on the
defensive end throughout the
game as well.The Saxons' Morgan Deal slides safely into third base during her team's I-8 double-
header with visiting Harper Creek Tuesday. (Photo by Valerie Slaughter)Cassidee Easey pitches for the Hastings varsity softball team during its' Interstate-
Athletic Conference doubleheader against Harper Creek Tuesday afternoon. (Photo
by Valerie Slaughter)The Saxons' BreAnn Micklatcher fights her way past Harper Creek's
Alyssa Smith in the midfield during the first half of their I-8 contest
inside Baum Stadium at Johnson Field in Hastings Friday. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)Hastings defender Molly Patton clears the ball away
from her net during the second half against Harper Creek
in Hastings Friday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Hastings goalkeeper Dekotah Blough scoops up the ball as it
bounds in towards her net during her team's Interstate-8 match
against visiting Harper Creek inside Baum Stadium at Johnson
Field in Hastings Friday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)