By MIKE BIALKA
Sports Editor

Brainerd's Becky Walker placed 24th on the uneven bars to lead the Warriors' delegation in the Class 2A state meet Saturday night at the Sports Pavilion on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

Walker, a senior, scored 8.6625 on the bars, and finished 26th in the all-around (35.725) and 33rd on vault (9.0).

"Becky stuck her beam, and made her vault, but not as good as sections," Warriors coach Dave Maras said. "On bars she clicked her feet on her dismount and hit the low bar, which was unusual for her. She had a nice, clean floor routine, there was not much more she had to give."

Brainerd senior Kelsi Ring placed 30th on vault and 28th on uneven bars.

"We were kind of looking at Kelsi maybe doing a tougher vault," Maras said. "She did her vault, and it was as good as normal.

"Bar scores were tough this year for everybody. A couple elite kids did quite well, the majority of other kids were in the 8s, which is not like former state tournaments. They've changed the rules on bars considerably. There were a lot of good kids. The scoring was just not what it was."

Brainerd's Madison Grausam and Mikayla Cerney placed 26th and 31st, respectively, on floor exercise.

"Madison had a great routine, it was nice and clean," Maras said. "She hit everything. She did what she does best, went out and had a lot of fun.

"Mikayla was the second kid up on floor. That's a tough spot to be in for a first-timer, but she had a nice routine. She was a little off on her front pass but for the most part she competed well. She was happy, and she looked like she belonged there.

"When it was all said and done, after it was over, all the girls felt pretty good about what they had done, and so do (the coaches). We're pretty proud of those kids."

Class 2A individual state meet

Uneven parallel bars: 1-Jena Jondahl (Elk River/Zimmerman) 9.7, 24-Becky Walker (Brd) 8.6625, 28-Kelsi Ring (Brd) 8.4500

Floor exercise: 1-Jondahl 9.6875, 26-Madison Grausam (Brd) 9.0625, 31-Mikayla Cerney (Brd) 8.8125

Vault: 1-Natalie Merrifield (Bloomington Jefferson) 9.75, 30-Ring 9.075, 33-Walker 9.0

Balance beam: 1-Sabrina Hoover (Rogers) 9.70

All-around: 1-Sabrina Hoover (Rogers) 38.575, 26-Walker 35.725

MIKE BIALKA may be reached at mike.bialka@brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5861.