From a team that showed not only winning form but winning attitudes, the Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School Lakers gymnastics team proved their mettle at the all-provincial finals early last week in Ancaster.

Three gymnasts, two of whom tasted their first competition at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA), finished in the top-three overall in the province.

Grade 9 student Natalie Kruger, level 6, proved inexperience has nothing to do with success.

Although she has been involved with gymnastics since the age of six, Kruger has never competed at OFSAA, and punctuated her experience with a second-place overall finish.

Despite falls on the beam and the floor, Kruger recovered with strong performances on the vault and the uneven bars, both second places.

Kruger said she was disappointed with the mistakes and believes she can only improve next year.

After a “wobbly” beam competition to open the event, Vienna Goldthorp, who returned to OFSAA for the third consecutive year, bounced back with strong performances on the floor and the vault for a second-place overall.

“She was good. She talked herself back into the competition,” said coach Jessica Murray.

The level 5 competitor placed second on the vault and fifth on the floor.

Also a first-year athlete with the program, Katie Featherstone, level 1, did well even if she needed her mother to tell her about the third overall placing at the end of the competition.

“I didn’t even know I got the overall (third),” Featherstone said. “My mom had to tell me.”

Featherstone, who has a background in Highland dance and just started gymnastics, thought the experience was intimidating at first, but battled through the nerves.

“I didn’t expect to get anything,” she said. “I just wanted to have fun.”

Murray, coach for four years, said this team was the best she has led.

It has been a committed group with not only their execution and performance on the mats, but in their dedication to one another and how they support one another toward the aim of learning the sport and having a good time, she said.

Other notable results for the team at OFSAA were Erin Aitken, level 6, who finished an impressive seventh overall. The school also managed to win third overall in the level 2 category of schools led by Brittany Major’s eighth overall and Kelly Buller’s 13th overall placings.

Murray is proud of her graduating athletes and their marked improvement over the years.

Fourth-year athletes in their final year of competition were Haley Wright, level 3, who finished fourth, and Kristen Yeo, level 4, who finished 16th.

Wright was with the program for four years and started with no experience and matured into a strong gymnast, Murray said.

Yeo, who showed anxiety about the beam in Ancaster, pushed through the fears and competed all four events for the overall result to end her career on a positive note with the Lakers. She ended her time with the program in “true gymnastic fashion,” Murray said.

When the coach recounts the accomplishments of her team in both the Georgian Bay Secondary Schools Association and OFSAA competitions, Murray is immediately excited for how her team came together to support and help each other. Reclaiming the GBSSA overall title at every level was a strong highlight to a spectacular season, but was not as important as the spirit.

Murray said she was happy to just be coaching and to give athletes the opportunity to compete and that “it’s nice in the end to have the (GBSSA) plaque.”

She added her student coach, Brittany Allen, was invaluable to the program and should be commended for her efforts.

Next year, with the Olympics approaching and a wealth of team members actively expressing their passion for the sport, Murray expects to have greater interest for the team. With only two leaving because of graduation, the team’s future is definitely bright.

“There is nowhere to go but up,” she said.