Sara Holmgren knew the Litchfield gymnastics team had it in them.

It just took a little longer to appear than the Dragons coach – or her athletes – might have expected.

But the Dragons hit their stride as they beat Glencoe-Silver Lake 136.175-122.975 Thursday at Litchfield Armory. It wasn’t just a win, but the most points earned in a single meet by a Litchfield gymnastics team since 2008, and only about a point away from the school record.

“This is a talented group of girls,” Holmgren said. “I told them Monday they are capable of breaking that school record, and I told them some of the things we did as a group in 2008 to break that school record.

“The girls decided they were up to the challenge,” Holmgren continued. “We designed our practices a little differently this week and really focused on sticking our tumbling passes and jumps on floor and sticking our beam routines.”

The focus on floor and balance beam paid off as Litchfield swept the top three places in both events.

Sophomore Raina Kaping led the Dragons on balance beam, winning the event with a score of 8.85. Juniors Grace Borowicz and Emma Brown tied for second place with 8.6.

Borowicz and Kaping, the Dragons’ two all-around performers, traded places in floor exercise, with Borowicz scoring a 9.05 for the win and Kaping earning second with an 8.85. Brown finished third with an 8.75 on floor.

“The team had a lot of great energy (Thursday) and that definitely contributed to the big score,” Holmgren said. “That energy was something we had been lacking in our first few meets and it was fun to bring that energy to our home gym.”

The Dragons entered this season believing they were on the cusp of something big. They achieved 135 points in two meets last season, and many of the top performers from that team are back again. So breaking the program record of 137 points in a meet and having the first individual state qualifier since 2008 both seemed realistic goals.

Yet, things didn’t quite click in the first several meets of the season.

Despite beating Dassel-Cokato 127.55-126.425 last week, the Dragons still had not reached 130 points in their first four meets of season. That all changed in a big way against Glencoe-Silver Lake.

“As I’ve said since the beginning of the season, this is an experienced group of girls,” Holmgren said. “Many of them have been competing varsity for five or six years. We were stuck with scores below 129 and the girls knew they were better than that. I feel that this week was a turning point for us. I’m so glad that they were rewarded for all their hard work with the score that they deserved! I am proud of how hard they have been working and I know they will continue that hard work through the next three weeks.”

In addition to shining on the beam and floor, the Dragons nearly swept the top spots in vault and uneven bars, as well. Borowicz won both events, taking the vault with an 8.9 and uneven bars with an 8.35. Sophomore Olivia Holmgren took second in vault, while Brown was second on bars.

Borowicz took all-around honors with a 34.9, and Kaping was close behind at 34.375.

Holmgren thinks that busting out to 136.175 last week will make a difference for the Dragons as they prepare for their final two regular season meets and the postseason.

“This score is definitely a motivator for these girls,” she said. “I know that they are all thinking about beating that record. There are always things you can improve on in gymnastics and for the next three weeks leading up to our section meet, that is exactly what we will try to do – find those little things that we can improve upon to try to get our score even higher.”