Woodbury gymnastics Royals fall to White Bear Lake, lose Haut

The Woodbury gymnastics team’s tough season continued last week with a 130.525 to 123.675 loss to White Bear Lake in a Suburban East Conference meet on Thursday, Jan. 5, at Woodbury High School.

The good news for Woodbury heading into the meet was the return of the team’s top all-arounder in Jordan Rodriguez from a knee injury.

However, the bad news came as another of the team’s top all-around gymnasts, Maddy Haut, suffered a broken arm and will miss the remainder of the year.

In her first match back, Rodriguez, a junior, led the way for the Royals taking third place in the all-around with a score of 32.125. White Bear Lake standout Kellie Dougherty won the all-around with a 36.65.

Rodriguez finished in third place in the vault (8.65), third place on the bars (7.55), third on the beam (7.625) and fourth in the floor exercise (8.3).

“She is slowly putting her skills back in,” Woodbury head coach Julie Dornseif said. “Unfortunately she’s not back to full strength yet.”

Woodbury’s Shriya Raje was the top performer for the Royals in the meet. Raje, a senior, finished second in the vault with an 8.7, fourth on the beam (7.525) and in third place in the floor exercise (8.325).

In addition, Rose Peterson took fourth in the vault (8.45) and sixth in the floor exercise (8.0) and Tessa Halada earned fifth place in the vault (8.325) and sixth in the bars (7.1).

“Shryia, Tessa, and Rose on the Varsity are stepping it up, which is exciting,” Dornseif said. “Our younger JV kids have now come in to Varsity and get a chance to experience varsity and they are all working hard and learning new skills.”

Next, Woodbury takes on defending conference and Section 3AA champion Park on Thursday, Jan. 12, in Cottage Grove.

“This year, with the injuries and the loss of our top two seniors, will be a rebuilding year but we hope to continue to come on strong next year and hopefully will be injury free,” Dornseif said.

Tags: sports, gymnastics, woodbury, royals, prep, updates