Bell, Trinity gymnasts prepare for district meet this week

The Hurst L.D. Bell girls gymnastics team has 20 state championships in its history, including last season. And if the rankings by the Texas Gymnastics Coaches Association are correct, it may be on its way to No. 21.

Bell and Euless Trinity will host district competition Thursday and Friday (March 23-24) at the F.E. Watson Gymnasium in Euless.

The Lady Raiders enter the meet ranked No. 1 in the state in combined three-score average (228.817) and have the highest score (230.300) in any meet.

The Bell girls are led by Alexis Martin, who is first in the state in average for all-around, floor and beam. She is second in bars and tied for 10th in vault. Her floor score of 19.700 is the best score in the state.

Bell’s Kyleigh Prather is second all-around average, along with vault and floor. She is fourth in bars and eighth in beam. Her best bars score of 19.600 is second in the state, with an identical score in floor, also second best in the state.

Also from Bell, Desiray Rodriguez is seventh in floor.

The Trinity Lady Trojans are ranked eighth in three-score average (219.533). They are led by Rebecca Stricklin, who is seventh all-around, tied for sixth in vault, tied for seventh in bars and ninth in beam.

“We are climbing, slowly, but we are making headway. The girls are starting to buckle down and make improvements, and their meet performances are getting stronger and more confident,” Trinity girls coach Rebecca Shaw said. “I’m hoping the district meet will be their strongest performance yet, and we will keep going up.

“They are becoming a little more consistent, which is important when we come into postseason. They are sticking together and pushing each other in the right direction.”

As for the boys, the Trinity Trojans are eighth in average (314.000) and Bell is 12th (306.633).

Bell’s Adam Tice is fourth in vault average. His top score is 19.400, third best in the state. He’s also 12th all-around.

The highest ranked Trinity boy is Jacob Cummingham, who is 18th in all-around average.

“We are getting better every week, working on making our routines as clean as possible to make the run for state,” Trinity boys coach Travis Coulbourn said.

“Overall, I can say that my young team is doing just about all I can expect — improving,” Blue Raiders boys coach Sean Sims said. “We had an eight-point improvement in our optional team score from our first meet to our most recent. That’s huge.

“We may not be doing some of the bigger skills that some other teams are doing, but we are doing things pretty clean. Our optional scores have us currently ranked 9th in the state, and second in our region,” Sims added.

“We started the year with a very simple yet lofty goal, make it to state as a team. We are in the toughest boys region in the state. There are five legitimate boys teams that will make the qualifying score, but only the top three get to go. It’s going to come down to who’s healthy, eligible and has a good meet. We will learn a lot at the district meet.”

This story was originally published March 20, 2017 at 1:51 PM with the headline "Bell, Trinity gymnasts prepare for district meet this week."