GYMNASTICS: BGC qualifies horde for regional competition; popular director/coach to call it a career after more than 40 years
Bartlesville Gymnastic Club members.
Photo provided
By Mike Tupa
March 28, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
Bartlesville Gymnastic Club battlers proved they’re unbeatable in their backyard.
While hosting the recent 2025 Oklahoma Optional State Championships — which attracted more than 300 athletes from throughout the state — the BGC girls swept the top 10 honors.
Here’s the list:
— 1st: Brooklyn Sylvester (All-Around, 38.3); Vault (2nd, 9.35), Bars (1st, 9.875), Floor (1st, 9.25).
— 2nd: Raynie Ketcher (All-Around, 38.2); Vault (1st, 9.675), Floor (2nd, 9.5).
— 3rd: Harper Maudlin (All-Around, 37.625); Bars (2nd, 9.625); Beam (2nd, 9.525), Floor (3rd, 9.375).
— 4th: Chloe Canipe (All-Around, 37.3); Vault (3rd, 9.175).
— 5th: Burklee Orphin (All-Around, 36.75); Bars (3rd, 9.55); Beam (1st, 9.6).
— 6th: Trinity Stephens (All-Around, 36.6).
— 7th: Lyndsey Lief (All-Around, 36.3).
— 8th: Hayden Littleford (All-Around, 36.175.
— 9th: Kinlee Littleford (All-Around, 35.5).
— 10th : Lisa Smith (All-Around, 18.125); Beam (3rd, 9.525).
All 10 of these tiger-smooth athletes qualified for the national regionals.
The breakdown of BGC qualifiers includes:
— Level 7: Canipe and Sylvester, April 25-27, in Wichita, Kan.
— Level 8: Maudlin, Stephens, Hayden Littleford and Orphin, April 25-27, Wichita, Kan.
— Level 9: Lief, April 10-13, University of Denver.
— Level 10: Ketcher, Kinlee Littleford, Lydia Pierce and Smith, April 10-13, University of Denver.
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Bartlesville Gymnastics Club’s Hayden Littleford participates in a recent meet.
Photo provided
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BERTOLET POURED HEART AND SOUL INTO LOCAL GYMNASTICS
For more than 40 years — during the tenure of seven presidents, the personal communication technological revolution, both Gulf wars, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the entire NFL career of Tom Brady, from Larry Bird to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, from Chinese food take-out to stuffed-crust pizza — Lorrie Bertolet has invested her energy, her devotion, her heart, her soul, her love and her future into local gymnastics.
First with the Phillips 66 Gymnastics Club, which morphed into the ConocoPhillips Gymnastics Club and later into the Bartlesville Gymnastics Club.
Her commitment extends back from 1983 when she joined the P66 Gymnastics Club as a coach.
Bertolet also spent a big chunk of her childhood — in the 1970s — as a student and competitor with the program.
Once she joined the club as an adult coach, she's stuck with it through tumultuous — and at times very, very difficult — changes. She’s played an integral role in elevating the quality of the program’s competitiveness to a national level and several years ago she accepted the pressure-weighted roles as the club’s Executive Director and Head Coach.
That era is coming to an end. Bertolet has announced her retirement, set to take effect in the summer of 2025. A retirement celebration to honor Bertolet is planned in July or August.
An official search to fill her duties is planned to begin almost immediately, with the goal of hiring someone prior to her departure.
“Her dedication and leadership have played a pivotal role in shaping the program into what it is today,” according to the email that went out to the families of gymnasts. “Over the years she has coached countless athletes, remembering many of them fondly, and her impact on the gymnastics community is immeasurable.”
The BGC Board of Directors seeks to bring on board the right person that will “uphold our mission, support our athletes, and continue making Bartlesville Gymnastics a premier facility for training and community engagement.”