Baraboo Gymnastics Shines at River Valley Invite: Varsity Third, JV Runner-Up
SPRING GREEN, Wis. — The Baraboo Thunderbirds put together a strong showing on Saturday, scoring 127.200 points to finish third in a deep seven-team field at the River Valley Invite, highlighted by strong work on beam and bars.
Dodgeville Co-Op claimed the varsity title with a 138.700 team total, followed by Southwestern Co-Op at 127.675. Baraboo closed just behind in third, edging Platteville Co-Op (121.600), Reedsburg (118.950), host River Valley Co-Op (107.825) and Westby Co-op (89.775). In the junior varsity session, Dodgeville also won at 115.250, with Baraboo JV in second at 104.750 as the top two JV teams pulled away from the rest of the field.
For the Thunderbirds’ varsity, the foundation came on beam and bars. Baraboo totaled 33.350 on beam, one of the top event scores of the day, and backed it up with 30.025 on bars. Zeva Valley placed 2nd in both events with scores of 9.15 and 8.15 respectively. Sophomores Fiona Miller and Taytum Poker each achieved new personal record scores in order to tie with each other to reach 6th place on the podium for beam each with a score of 8.45.
Baraboo also delivered steady numbers on the power events, posting a 31.550 on vault and a 32.275 on floor. Valley made another trip to the podium on Floor with a score of 8.7, earning her a 5th place finish. While Southwestern edged the Thunderbirds overall by less than half a point, Baraboo’s ability to stay above 30.000 on all four apparatus showed the team’s overall depth and balance. In the All Around, Valley placed 4th overall with a score of 33.650. The combined 127.200 marked a competitive score in a meet that featured some of the state’s top small-school lineups, including multiple 9.000-plus performances from Dodgeville and Platteville standouts.
In the JV competition, Baraboo’s second-place 104.750 underscored the strength of the program’s younger athletes. The JV Thunderbirds hit 25.200 on bars — one of the top JV totals of the day — and added 28.800 on beam, 28.200 on floor and 22.550 on vault. Baraboo trailed only Dodgeville’s JV squad, which finished at 115.250, but created significant separation from the rest of the JV field, as Platteville (52.650), Southwestern (37.550), River Valley (13.900) and Reedsburg (11.000) rounded out the standings.
With both varsity and JV finishing in the top three of their respective divisions and clearing 100 points, Baraboo left Spring Green with momentum and valuable experience on all four apparatus. The Thunderbirds will look to build on their beam and bars consistency as they head into the final stretch of the regular season and prepare for conference and postseason competition.
