GMC wins Tami Effinger Invite to kick off 2026

The Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Melrose-Mindoro/Cochrane-Fountain City gymnastics co-op rang in the new year with a flourish, winning their first meet of the season last weekend.

GMC came out on top of the team standings at the Tami Effinger Invite, held last Friday in Westby. GMC’s score of 133.075 put them on top at the meet, just ahead of Sparta (131.525) in second.

The remainder of the team standings were the La Crosse Logan co-op (125.2) in third, the WVCD co-op (121.4) in fourth, Tomah (115.5) in fifth, the River Valley co-op (111.625) in sixth and Onalaska (90.975) in seventh.

Individually, GMC had a pair of athletes inside the top five with Jayden Thill (34.05) in third and Reesa Beilke (33.75) in fourth. Only Sparta’s Gabrielle Bjorkman (37.475) in first and WVCD’s Peyton Sprosty (34.35) in second finished ahead of them.

Kinley Giemza (32.825) came in sixth and Izabella Bear (32.1) was in eighth to round out the GMC finishers in the top 10 of the all-around standings.

Bjorkman was the top individual in all four events, though a trio of GMC followed her in the vault: Beilke (8.75) in second, Thill (8.65) in third and Giemza (8.5) in fourth. Thill’s score of 9.2 was good enough for second in the floor exercise, making her and Bjorkman the only competitors to get above nine. Beilke (8.7) and Giemza (8.575) were fourth and fifth, respectively, in that same event.

Thill also led her team in the uneven bars, placing sixth overall with a score of 8.4. No GMC gymnast cracked the top five on the beam, though Beilke and Bear tied for sixth with scores of 8.25. 

After a bit of a gap between competitions, the GMC co-op returns to action as part of an invitational in Holmen on Saturday, Jan. 17.