With a 7-1 record on the season, the Owatonna Girls Gymnastics team was runner-up at big nine and took first at sections qualifying for the MSHSL state Championships. With such a young team these girls have shown bravery and a fighting spirit. Going into the team event the girls feel ready to show the competition what they can do. The Huskies state team consists of the varsity team Kaitlyn Cobban, Emma Johnson, Jozie Johnson, Kendra Miller, Janessa Moore, Chloe Myer, Dylann Norrid, Averie Roush, and Kaelyn Smith.

Freshman Averie Roush started off the rotation on beam with a stuck routine, which then led into a stick for junior Kaitlyn Cobban. The girls went three for five with stuck routines. Junior Kaitlyn Cobban said, “I feel more confident when we start on beam because it is my most consistent event and I am most confident on it. I also like getting all of the nerves out of the way right away in the meet”. The first and last rotation seem to always be more nerve-wracking as scores seem to matter the most.

The next rotation was floor exercise. The team had good routines as all landed their passes and hit their jumps. The team put on a show having energetic dances with great music, the whole team would dance along with the girls competing. 

Vault was the third rotation and the girls came off strong with attempts of some sticks. They had a different lineup for vault but still put up some good scores for the team. A couple of falls happened at the beginning of the lineup, but the end of the line was able to make up for those scores. Head Coach Evan Moe says, “We had a great vault at sections but it definitely carried us throughout tonight.” Freshman Jozie Johnson qualified for the vault individually at sections, she came into state with that same momentum putting up consistent scores all weekend.

The last rotation for the Huskies was bars. Scoring has always been the hardest on bars because deductions happen all the time for form, no connections, not hiding handstands and landings. The Owatonna High School Gymnastics team still was able to pull off all of that for bars. Ending it strong for the huskies was Averie Roush with a score of 8.525.

This will be the last season for senior and captain Janessa Moore. Moore has been a gymnast for fifteen years, she joined the high school team in seventh grade. After six years of competing at state, Moore is not continuing her gymnastics career in college. Moore said, “Gymnastics has taught me to keep me pushing and to focus on the fun thing about the sport because pretty soon it will all be over”.

After the meet, the team patiently waits for the scores to be announced during the awards ceremony. The Huskies put up a score of 142.325, which ended them in 6th place overall. The individual qualifiers will compete with their team standing behind to cheer them on Saturday.  Individuals that will be competing are junior Kaityln Cobban who competed on beam, Freshman Averie Roush competed on the floor, freshman Jozie Johnson compete on vault and sophomore Emma johnson competed all around.