Striver Gymnasts Shine Bright the past two weekends

The Door County YMCA Striver Gymnastic Team tumbled to victory over the past two weekends. The girls hosted their first home meet in four seasons on January 27. The COVID pandemic and the beautiful expansion of the Door County YMCA led to the hiatus for the Striver Team.

Kicking off the six-team “Flipping in Door County” home meet were the Excel Silver Gymnasts. The Door County Silver Gymnasts tumbled to victory capturing a first-place Team title scoring 112. 30. Medaling for the Silver group were:  Evelynn Kelsey (12 & up) who won gold in the All Around (37.20), floor, beam, and bars. Evelynn captured silver on the vault. Lauren Gaida (12 & up) won the vault and grabbed silver on the floor, beam, and the All Around (37.15). Medaling in the 11 and under age group were: Ellie Kelsey tumbled to gold in the All Around (37.15), floor, vault, beam, and bars. Sawyer Soukup won silver in the All Around (36.70), bars and vault. Teammate Brinley Newton grabbed gold on the bars, and Delaney Allen earned silver on the bars.

Tumbling after the Silvers were the Excel Platinum and Level 7 gymnasts. Shaylyn Asher, Platinum competitor won the All Around (35.70), vault and bars. Level 7 gymnast Amira Anschutz (14 & under) earned gold on bars, silver on vault and bronze in the All Around (35.85). Estelle Duerst won bronze on the vault, beam, and bars. In the 15 and older age group, Portia Hah won gold on bars.

The Striver group competed this past weekend at the 35th Annual Sheboygan Snowflake Seven Team Invitational Meet. Winning Gold in the Team competition was the Excel Silver Team of Door County scoring 111.20.  Leading the team were Lauren Gaida (12 & up) and Ellie Kelsey (nine & under). Lauren Gaida won gold in the All Around (36.95), floor, vault, and bars. Ellie Kelsey won silver in the All Around (36.45) and gold on beam and floor. Ellie won bronze on bars and fourth on beam.  Sawyer Soukup won gold on the vault, silver on the floor, and fourth in the All Around (36.05) Additional medalists in the top five for the Silver Team were: Evelyn Kelsey,  Brinley Newton, Keira Clark and Greta Virgin.

Level Seven gymnast Estelle Duerst earned gold on bars, silver on vault and All Around (35.80), and bronze on beam.

The Striver Team will compete at the Kettle Moraine YMCA in early March. The Team will compete the weekend of March 16, 2024 at the YMCA State Gymnastic Tournament hosted by the Fond Du Lac YMCA.

The Door County YMCA: For Youth Development, Healthy Living and Social Responsibility. Driven by its founding mission, the Door County YMCA has 170 full and part-time staff serving over 11,000 members in Door County from facilities in Fish Creek and Sturgeon Bay in a broad range of programming for all ages. The Y empowers everyone, no matter who they are or where they’re from, by ensuring access to resources, relationships, and opportunities for all to learn, grow and thrive. By bringing together people from different backgrounds, perspectives, and generations, the Y’s goal is to improve overall health and well-being, ignite youth empowerment and demonstrate the importance of connections in and across 10,000 communities nationwide.