No. 1 Laker gymnasts win easily at Fargo Invite

By Robert Williams

January 05, 2015 at 10:15 AM

The No. 1 Minnesota Class A Detroit Lakes gymnastics team dominated all four events and Molly Lyngaas returned in full force to win her first all-around title of the season as the Lakers cruised to the championship at the Fargo Invitational Saturday.

Lyngaas has been on the sidelines most of the season recovering from an injury in the off-season and got her first taste of all four events in Fargo winning on uneven parallel bars and balance beam.

The Lakers swept the top three scores on three of four apparatus.

Allison Berg won on vault with a 9.525, followed by Leah Chavez with a 9.475. Lyngaas was third scoring 9.325.

Thia Olds (9.45) and Cora Okeson (9.1) were runner-up and third behind Lyngaas’ 9.5 winning bars performance.

Alexis Ostlie scored 8.95 on beam for second place. Johanna Jernberg finished in third scoring 8.9. Lyngaas was the only gymnast above nine points winning with a 9.3.

Berg notched her second win of the meet with a 9.575 floor exercise routine, followed by Okeson’s 9.45 and the lone non-Laker to crack the top three in any event: Fargo’s Quincee Simonson with an 8.85.

Lyngaas and Okeson were separated by 0.2 points in the final all-around standings. The duo has combined for back-to-back all-around wins.

Detroit Lakes is undefeated in five meets this year and their team score of 147.2 will continue to boost their No. 1 state rankings as the Lakers head to unranked Little Falls Tuesday, Jan. 6.

No. 2A and defending champions Melrose defeated No. 9 Watertown-Mayer/Mound-Westonka 143.95 – 143.65 led by Lydia Butkowski winning the all-around (36.8).

Detroit Lakes at Fargo Invitational, Saturday, Jan. 3