BROOKINGS – The Brookings Bobcats haven’t been able to work on their craft over the past couple of weeks as inclement weather has taken over the area. While they haven’t had much time to refine their routines, they continued to show improvement after their performance at the Sioux Falls Pentagonal Meet in Brookings.

The Bobcats finished with 134.200 points which was not only the highest score in the meet but also their highest score of the season. Considering the lack of preparation, Brookings head coach Rachelle Engbrecht was impressed by her team’s performance.

“We’ve actually only practiced twice in the past 10 days, so we did okay,” Engbrecht laughed. “It’s been really, really good. We got a lot of really good performances tonight and they’re really starting to show what they can do.”

The Bobcats were fueled by the performances of Jessica Fourney, Delilah Fuls, and Layla Erickson. Erickson had the highest all-around score in the meet at 34.950 which was aided by her 9.050 score in the vault and a 9.200 score in the floor routine.

Fuls also had a strong night, finishing third with an all-around score of 33.100 and earning a high score of 8.650 on the uneven bars. Fuls also finished the night with scores of 8.300 on the floor exercise, 8.200 on the vault, and 7.950 on the balance beam.

Fourney finished fourth in the all-around with a score of 33.050 and finished fourth in the meet with an 8.6500 score on the vault. Fourney also scored 8.550 on the floor exercise, 8.400 on the balance beam, and 7.450 on the uneven bars.

The Bobcats also got strong performances from Amber Brockberg, who posted an 8.400 score on the vault, an 8.400 score on the floor, and a 7.750 score on the beam, Ava Petterson, who had an 8.050 score on the vault, an 8.050 score on the beam and a 7.850 score on the bars, Nevaeh Strohfus, who had a score of 7.500 on the floor exercise and Tayla Dobrenski who had a score of 7.850 on the uneven bars.

All things considered, it was a good night for Brookings, even with a couple of things to work on.

“We can always fall less on the beam because that’s a big knock on the team score,” Engbrecht said. “We also have a bunch of releases that we need to start putting in on the bar routines and some stuff that we’re going to try and do at Hendricks, but with all the snow days and stuff, we haven’t been able to get those in. Hopefully, with some good practices over Christmas here, we can do that for our invitational.”

Overall, Engbrecht was impressed with her team as they look to continue improving ahead of the Brookings Patty Jorgensen Invite on Jan. 7.

“Our scores are going in the right direction,” Engbrecht said. “We have a really small team but they’re so close and tight-knit and a hard-working group. They’re really going to start racking up some higher scores now.”