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Feb. 10—MITCHELL — There's one mission for the Mitchell High School gymnastics team on Friday for the Class AA state meet in its home gym.
Put together their most complete performance of the year.
Admittedly, it's going to be hard for the Kernels or anyone else to run down Harrisburg for the state championship but Mitchell has a strong chance to finish second in the team standings. In any case, the Kernels are still looking to have their best performance of the season when they compete in the state team competition at 3:30 p.m. Friday. That will be followed by the individual championships on Saturday at the new MHS gym. It is only the third time Mitchell has hosted a state high school gymnastics meet, hosting the 1983 and 2022 championships at the Corn Palace.
Averaging each team's four best scores from the season, Harrisburg leads the state with 151.269 points per meet, while Mitchell is second (146.481) and followed by Watertown (144.850), with Brookings and Sioux Falls Lincoln rounding out the rest of the top-five teams.
The Kernels' season-best score came on Jan. 24 at Sioux Falls Lincoln, when Mitchell recorded 147.800. But Mitchell's best score in each of the four event disciplines — vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise — have come on four different days this season. Add those top figures up and Mitchell can score 150.325, but gymnastics is never that easy. And it will come down to the Kernels' execution and confidence on Friday.
"I think it's very motivating," senior gymnast Abby Helleloid said. "We all still have things that we can improve, including myself, and I think it's in the back of our minds, knowing how much we're capable of."
"I'm just excited to see all their hard work kind of pay off for them," Mitchell coach Audra Rew added. "They don't have to be perfect for us to finish where we want to finish but I want to see them be the best they can be."
Mitchell has had a top-two finish at 12 consecutive Class AA state team meets, including seven state titles in that span. Harrisburg won last year's state title over the Kernels by 4.35 points in Watertown.
This year, Mitchell is technically seeded fourth among the eight teams for the state meet because it's based on how the teams competed at the Class AA state-qualifying meet on Feb. 7. Harrisburg was No. 1, Watertown was No. 2 and Mitchell and Sioux Falls Lincoln tied for third with 142.900 points. (The seeding tie was broken by the average top individual scores from each event, which gave Lincoln the edge.) Rew said she didn't mind the tiebreaker because Mitchell gets to start the team competition on bars, which is typically a strength of the team.
As for that score, it was Mitchell's worst team score of the season — which was dragged down by subpar balance beam and floor scores, but the Kernels also did not have standout senior Kyanna Gropper competing all-around as usual.
Gropper tied for the best vault score in Class AA this season with a 9.700, and she was second on uneven bars (9.650) and beam (9.700) and third-best on floor (9.800).
Mitchell senior Olivia Prunty, a veteran of numerous state competitions, said there can be a strange pressure with the state meet because it's the most important event of the year. That can mean a gymnast feels like they don't have to be perfect until then, but then there's added pressure to perform in that big moment.
"You really don't have to be perfect," Prunty said of her advice to teammates. "You do all of these routines in preparation, so I think sometimes people can think you're not ready. Really, you just try to remind them that you've been doing this routine all year, a thousand times, and you're ready, you can do it."
Prunty, who was third in the individual state all-around last season and was the state vault champion in 2024, has the state's third-best score this season on vault and uneven bars (9.550) on both. Abby Hohn, a sophomore for the Kernels, has the fifth-best Class AA score on vault (9.475).
Mitchell's team day roster includes seniors McKenna Auch, Gropper, Helleloid and Prunty, junior Shae Hohn, sophomore Abby Hohn, freshmen Ava Hart and Allison Walz, eighth-grader Sury Bechen and seventh-grader Hannah Werkmeister. Each team can name seven gymnasts in advance for each event and then compete five on meet day, with the top-four scores counting to the team score.
"I would say the different age gaps on this team, that's been a unique part of this group," Auch said. "We have girls from the younger classes, we have upperclassmen, and that's forced us to learn about each other as a team and bring us together. I feel like we're all connected and it's not just little groups."
Rew said the team can draw confidence that it has drawn success from a large roster of contributors during the season.
"From that standpoint, I think it's going to be great," Rew said. "I think the girls that we know can score. ... They're ready to showcase that, and it's time. We're ready to put all four events together and knock it out of the ballpark and we haven't really done that all year, in my opinion."
Interestingly for a home meet, the Kernels will go out of their way to treat it like any other competition. That includes gathering at their practice facility at MEGA Gymnastics and riding over to MHS on a bus as a team.
In terms of competing at home, there's no home-venue advantage in gymnastics from crowd noise or having an advantage of how the meet is contested. But being able to perform in front of friends and family is not lost on the Kernels.
"I think the best part is we get more of a support system being at home," Helleloid said. "More people can come watch and I think it's great for the community and some of the younger gymnasts get to come watch as well."
Continue reading...
Put together their most complete performance of the year.
Admittedly, it's going to be hard for the Kernels or anyone else to run down Harrisburg for the state championship but Mitchell has a strong chance to finish second in the team standings. In any case, the Kernels are still looking to have their best performance of the season when they compete in the state team competition at 3:30 p.m. Friday. That will be followed by the individual championships on Saturday at the new MHS gym. It is only the third time Mitchell has hosted a state high school gymnastics meet, hosting the 1983 and 2022 championships at the Corn Palace.
Averaging each team's four best scores from the season, Harrisburg leads the state with 151.269 points per meet, while Mitchell is second (146.481) and followed by Watertown (144.850), with Brookings and Sioux Falls Lincoln rounding out the rest of the top-five teams.
The Kernels' season-best score came on Jan. 24 at Sioux Falls Lincoln, when Mitchell recorded 147.800. But Mitchell's best score in each of the four event disciplines — vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise — have come on four different days this season. Add those top figures up and Mitchell can score 150.325, but gymnastics is never that easy. And it will come down to the Kernels' execution and confidence on Friday.
"I think it's very motivating," senior gymnast Abby Helleloid said. "We all still have things that we can improve, including myself, and I think it's in the back of our minds, knowing how much we're capable of."
"I'm just excited to see all their hard work kind of pay off for them," Mitchell coach Audra Rew added. "They don't have to be perfect for us to finish where we want to finish but I want to see them be the best they can be."
Mitchell has had a top-two finish at 12 consecutive Class AA state team meets, including seven state titles in that span. Harrisburg won last year's state title over the Kernels by 4.35 points in Watertown.
This year, Mitchell is technically seeded fourth among the eight teams for the state meet because it's based on how the teams competed at the Class AA state-qualifying meet on Feb. 7. Harrisburg was No. 1, Watertown was No. 2 and Mitchell and Sioux Falls Lincoln tied for third with 142.900 points. (The seeding tie was broken by the average top individual scores from each event, which gave Lincoln the edge.) Rew said she didn't mind the tiebreaker because Mitchell gets to start the team competition on bars, which is typically a strength of the team.
As for that score, it was Mitchell's worst team score of the season — which was dragged down by subpar balance beam and floor scores, but the Kernels also did not have standout senior Kyanna Gropper competing all-around as usual.
Gropper tied for the best vault score in Class AA this season with a 9.700, and she was second on uneven bars (9.650) and beam (9.700) and third-best on floor (9.800).
Mitchell senior Olivia Prunty, a veteran of numerous state competitions, said there can be a strange pressure with the state meet because it's the most important event of the year. That can mean a gymnast feels like they don't have to be perfect until then, but then there's added pressure to perform in that big moment.
"You really don't have to be perfect," Prunty said of her advice to teammates. "You do all of these routines in preparation, so I think sometimes people can think you're not ready. Really, you just try to remind them that you've been doing this routine all year, a thousand times, and you're ready, you can do it."
Prunty, who was third in the individual state all-around last season and was the state vault champion in 2024, has the state's third-best score this season on vault and uneven bars (9.550) on both. Abby Hohn, a sophomore for the Kernels, has the fifth-best Class AA score on vault (9.475).
Mitchell's team day roster includes seniors McKenna Auch, Gropper, Helleloid and Prunty, junior Shae Hohn, sophomore Abby Hohn, freshmen Ava Hart and Allison Walz, eighth-grader Sury Bechen and seventh-grader Hannah Werkmeister. Each team can name seven gymnasts in advance for each event and then compete five on meet day, with the top-four scores counting to the team score.
"I would say the different age gaps on this team, that's been a unique part of this group," Auch said. "We have girls from the younger classes, we have upperclassmen, and that's forced us to learn about each other as a team and bring us together. I feel like we're all connected and it's not just little groups."
Rew said the team can draw confidence that it has drawn success from a large roster of contributors during the season.
"From that standpoint, I think it's going to be great," Rew said. "I think the girls that we know can score. ... They're ready to showcase that, and it's time. We're ready to put all four events together and knock it out of the ballpark and we haven't really done that all year, in my opinion."
Interestingly for a home meet, the Kernels will go out of their way to treat it like any other competition. That includes gathering at their practice facility at MEGA Gymnastics and riding over to MHS on a bus as a team.
In terms of competing at home, there's no home-venue advantage in gymnastics from crowd noise or having an advantage of how the meet is contested. But being able to perform in front of friends and family is not lost on the Kernels.
"I think the best part is we get more of a support system being at home," Helleloid said. "More people can come watch and I think it's great for the community and some of the younger gymnasts get to come watch as well."
Continue reading...
