The Becker Bulldog gymnastics team won sections and competed at state as a team last March.
This year, the team hopes to return and get a medal.
“I think we have a lot of talent and a lot of potential this year,” said Co-Captain Haley Olsen. “We want to go back to state as a team and place (medal). We are hungry for more.”
Becker’s other Co-Captain is Hannah Schmidt and she agrees with Olsen.
“We are just excited to see what this year has in store for us,” she said. “We are all working really hard and we have a lot of young talent we need to hone. We have to make this year count since it’s our (her and Olsen’s) last year in gymnastics.”
Becker beat out Big Lake in the Section 7A finals by 1.25 points and host Sartell by 1.825 to make the big stage the following week. They finished the state tournament in fifth place behind Detroit Lakes, Melrose, Watertown-Mayer/Mound Westonka and North Branch.
Miranda O’Brien, Megan Murphy, Lindsay Olsen and Haley Olsen made state individual competition with O’Brien taking 11th in vault, H. Olsen placing 31st on uneven bars, Murphy placing 19th on beam and L. Olsen placing 20th on beam and 14th on floor.
Jen Harmoning returns as the team’s head coach with Kelly McCall and Jesse Wiley also returning as assistants. The only gymnast Harmoning lost due to graduation was Murphy.
“There were a few girls that were on JV last year that decided not to go out for the team this year,” said Harmoning. “We aren’t missing any varsity girls in their routines except Murphy on the beam.”
The varsity squad consists of Haley Olsen, Hannah Schmidt, Haley Hubbard, Aubree Lahr, Lexi Michels, Kassidy Severson, Marlee Louden, Miranda O'Brien, Lindsay Olsen, Kylee Pudas, Maddie Janssen, Anne Nikolov, Emily Quill, Katie Wilke, Amelia Kirchner and Fallon Peterson.
“We are expecting ourselves to do very well this year,” said Harmoning. “We are planning to win the conference again and our larger goals are to win sections and medal at state.”
Schmidt and H. Olsen will be looked upon by the younger girls for leadership guidance on the floor and in the locker room. Harmoning’s teams have always done well and sometimes exceeded expectations.
“We are expecting a lot from ourselves since last year we won the sections,” said Harmoning. “All three of the top teams in sections had big mistakes — us included — but we hope to do better, return to state and medal.”
After several years of practicing and competing in the cramp gymnastics room by the fieldhouse, the team deservedly opened their new facility last year and were pleased with the new space.
“We are super excited about our sprawling gym,” said Harmoning. “We just love it. “We still have some things we need to iron out and try to improve but that all takes money so we just have to be patient.
Harmoning said AD Dave Niemi has been a huge supporter of the team and has worked really hard to accommodate the team’s requests to make the facility even better.
“He has worked hard for us to make this place better and improve this for us,” said Harmoning of Niemi. “Little-by-little things are getting better.”
Harmoning’s coaching strategy over the years is to concentrate on her team and how they perform and don’t pay attention to what the other teams are doing come competition.
“In coaching gymnastics, there really isn’t any defense,” she said. “You have what you have and you try and make the best of what you have.”
Harmoning says though gymnastics features athletes with incredible talent, strength and coordination — the sport is mostly about mental toughness.
“The mental part of this sport is huge,” she said. “It’s very demanding and the mind can either bring your skills to another level or make the routine you are about to perform a nightmare. These are teenagers so getting them to focus on one thing is quite a challenge.”
The coach says another difficult part of gymnastics is the limited time she and her staff get to work with the girls before their first competitions.
“We can’t work with them during the off-season but they can work out on their own,” she said. “Then we only have a couple of weeks of practice before the girls have to go. Conditioning is key at the beginning.”
Harmoning says that is the reason most gymnastic programs don’t start off too well in the month of December because most of the girls are working on getting their bodies strong enough to do all their routines.
“My job is to push them to get better, but with patience,” she said.
Over the years, the battle in section play has usually come down to either Becker or Big Lake — and it’ll probably be much of the same this year as both teams vie for that coveted trip to state.
The Section 7A tournament is in Sauk Rapids this year on Sat., Feb. 13 at noon.
The gymnasts first hit the floor for the regular season today (Saturday) at home in the Becker Clinic Invitational. They will be competing against teams from Farmington, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted, Melrose Area, Saint Michael-Albertville, Sauk Rapids - Rice, Willmar and North Branch.
