White Lake, MI (WTVB) – Four Coldwater Cardinal Gymnasts traveled to White Lake Lakeland High School on Saturday for the MHSAA Individual State Finals. McKenna Hantz, Layla Schoch, Randi Dudek, and Charlotte Calhoun performed their final routines of the year at the tournament to close out the 2021-2022 gymnastics season.
Calhoun and Hantz both performed in the all around competition after qualifying in all four events at the Regional competition one week earlier. Hantz competed in the Division 1 Finals and Calhoun competed in Division 2.
Calhoun scored 8.725 on the uneven bars event which was good enough to earn the sophomore All-State honors by finishing in a tie for 4th place overall in D2. In the Division 1 competition. Dudek posted 8.1 points and finished her season 28th place. Hantz tied for 31st on the bars with her score of 7.9 points after battling back from a knee injury in early February. Schoch has also battled injury since the beginning of January. She performed her final bar routine on Saturday to finish in 34th place in Division 1 with a mark of 7.75 points.
Hantz and Calhoun performed next on the balance beam, and both gymnasts finished in the top thirty overall in spite of each of them falling during their routines. Calhoun finished in a tie for 17th with a score of 8.8 points. Hantz finished her balance beam career with a mark of 8.15 points. Her efforts placed her in 29th overall for Division 1.
In the floor exercise, Calhoun and Hantz went back to back on the event, scoring 8.625 and 8.6 respectively. Charlotte’s mark tied her for 35th in D2, while Hantz was 28th for D1. Randi Dudek scored 8.35 for her efforts to finish 32nd.
In the vault, Hantz scored 8.75 points for her highest finish for the finals tournament with a tie for 21st place. Calhoun competed a half on, half off vault and earned 8.55 for her efforts (44th).
Both of the all-around competitors finished in the top 25 in the state for their combined performances on all four events. In Division 1, McKenna Hantz finished in 24th place with her tally of 33.4 points. It was her best all-around finish for the season. The senior completed her career in the best way possible by posting her highest all-around score of the season. Charlotte Calhoun posted a total of 34.7 points for her four event total. The mark placed the Cardinal in 15th in the state for Division 2.
“It was a great way to end the season. I was very proud of the girls and that we were so well represented in the state finals,” noted Coach Kim Nichols. The final meet of the season is a changing of the guard as Coldwater graduates five powerhouse seniors. The future looks bright for the program, though, as the seniors pass the torch to a promising group of underclassmen led by state finalists Dudek and Calhoun.
Comments