Eagle Staff Report

ARLINGTON -- Rudder continued what Bryan started and started something of its own Friday at Arlington Martin High School.

Led by Enoch Rodriguez's gold-medal performance in the all-around, the Rudder boys gymnastics team won the state title in dominating fashion, scoring 335.35 points to second-place Kingwood's 328.3.

It is the first state sports title for Rudder in just the third year for the new Bryan school. The title also adds to what Rudder head coach J.T. Fletcher and his Viking gymnasts started at Bryan High School, which won six state titles from 1996-2009 before the Viking program moved over permanently to Rudder.

Rodriguez scored 114.4 points in the all-around to add to his trophy case while leading three Rangers to top 10 finishes. Rudder's Michael Gonzalez joined him in the top 10 by placing eighth with 108.9 points, while teammate Taylor Fletcher placed 10th at 107.45.

"The guys were wonderful today," Fletcher said. "They did what they had to do."

Rodriguez won the 2009 all-around state title for Bryan and has won individual state titles on the pommel horse and high bar.

Kenneth Newbold, Tyler Houdek, Marc Herrera and Eric Hmielewski also helped Rudder not only win the state title but continue an incredible trend of improving its scores through all seven meets the Rangers competed in this season.

"I thought this would be the tough one where they got down a little bit, but they improved on their regional score," J.T. Fletcher said. "I just have to hand it to the boys. They did their job and proved that they were the best."

And the Rangers might not be done.

All seven Rudder boys gymnasts qualified for the individual championships Saturday. All competitors in the individual events will start fresh Saturday with no scores carrying over from the first two days of the meet.

Fort Worth Saginaw took third with 324.8 points, while Rockwall was fourth (321.6), Garland Lakeview Centennial was fifth (320.25) and Odessa Permian was sixth (318.95) in the 12-team field.

In the boys all-around, Lakeview Centennial's Johann Handszer took second behind Rodriguez with 113.9 points. Kingwood's Campbell Roper placed third at 112.1.