ABOVE: Martin County Area’s Ava Thate nails the transition in her uneven bars routine on Saturday in Fairmont during the MCA Invitational.

FAIRMONT – The Martin County Area Magic secured a third-place finish in the MCA Invitational on Saturday, locking in a score of 130.825 in a Big South Conference gymnastics meet.

The Magic moved up a handful of junior varsity competitors for the meet and are happy that the squad had the depth it needed.

“We pulled up some JV gymnasts to varsity,” said Magic head coach Anne Post. “They filled those spots well. We are so blessed to have depth within our team.”

Looking forward into the season, the Magic have been working on sharpening their skillset to become more well-rounded competitors as each meet passes. They used the holiday break to hone in on things each athlete wants to improve upon.

“Over the holiday break, each gymnast focused on a new skill they plan to complete in the upcoming meets to prepare for sections,” said Post. “I am so proud of how hard they worked at each practice — it will be fun to show off all of these new skills in the coming weeks.”

Opening the meet with a total score of 34.875 on the vault, the Magic were off to a hot start in the meet and continued to build on that performance as the day went on.

“I’m probably most confident in vault because I pretty much stuck my landing and I just think the

energy was so high on vault that everyone just did really good,” said Nola Thedens, who scored an 8.8 in the vault. “We all twist, we all have a higher difficulty, so I think that we all did great. I think I did good and I think everyone else did great, too.”

Ava Thate, who recently returned to the team, said she was most confident in her return on the bars.

“I’m most confident in bars today,” said Thate. “I’ve been out for a while, but I came

back and I know my team was supportive. I feel like I came back strong and had a really good routine.”

Thate ended up finishing with a 7.8 on bars, which was seventh in the event.

Leading the Magic was Lillie Schultz with a 33.875 all-around score to take fourth, which included an 8.95 in the vault, 7.2 on the bars, 8.45 on the beam and a 9.275 in the floor exercise. Jadyn Montgomery scored a 33.3 all-around to take fifth, including an 8.7 in the vault, 8.4 on bars, 8.075 on the beam and an 8.125 in the floor exercise. Nola Thedens placed 10th all-around with a 31.850, which included her 8.8 in the vault, 7.5 on bars, 7.675 on the beam and 7.875 in the floor exercise.

The Austin Packers won the invite with a 135.25.

The Magic’s next meet is against St. Peter at 6 p.m. Thursday.