MacKenzie Kush/ Winonan
The Winona State University gymnastics team came away with titles in every event on last Tuesday’s home meet, helping them defeat Gustavus Aldophus 183.100-172.850.
Warrior head coach Beckie Rolbiecki said she was excited for the team to perform in front of the home crowd in a more relaxed mode than their first home meet.
Junior Jade Donaldson won the All-Around title for the meet with a score of 37.000, beating the closest score by almost a full point.
“It felt great to win all around, because I knew that just by showing a little more confidence I could work toward the scores going in my favor,” Donaldson said. “Making it my goal to have more confidence in each event made me feel like anything is possible.”
Warriors Cassidy Kleven, Katie Carling, Brooke Heistand and Donaldson achieved the top four spots for beam.
Kleven, a freshman, recorded a personal-best of 9.375 on the beam, contributing to the team’s season-best score of 45.600. She said she was happy with this performance.
“There’s still a lot of room for improvement,” Kleven said. “But it feels great knowing my hard work is paying off.”
Junior Olivia Cattelino, Donaldson, Katie Carling and Melanee Pfautz took the top four spots for bars. Cattelino, the only gymnast of the night to score above a 9.000 on bars, won the bars with a score of 9.350. Donaldson earned second with an 8.950, Carling scored an 8.900 and Pfautz added an 8.875.
Winona State’s floor exercise won its best team score as junior Heistand took the top spot with a score of 9.450. Sophomore Veronica Peterson added a 9.400, Donaldson scored a 9.325, while Melanee Pfautz and Jessica Gabriel both recorded a 9.175 to make the team total 46.525 for the night.
The Warriors took five of the top six spots on vault, with Donaldson taking the top spot with a score of 9.400 and freshman Taylor Lewis adding 9.350.
Donaldson said, “As a team I think we did great, even though we had tough bars. We were able to put our heads on straight and finish up well on the rest of the events.”
She said the team could improve on not giving away little tenths of points, increasing their confidence level every week and believing that they are good enough to make it to Nationals. Rolbiecki explained that her team continues to grow, and she looks forward to the remainder of the season.
The Warriors competed Friday, Feb. 13 in Milwaukee at the Midwest Twisters Harley Davidson Invite. They finished third against two opponents with a score of 183.975.
Carling continued her home performance and scored a team-best 9.500 on bars and beam. Performances from Kathryn Pipp, Donaldson, Kleven and Hiestand also contributed to the team’s best beam score this season of 46.550.
Peterson scored a team-best 9.325 on the floor followed by Jessica Gabriel with a score of 9.125.
Donaldson finished with a score of 36.700 in the all-around and led the Warriors on vault with 9.400.
Winona State competed against Hamline University on Tuesday and will compete in the Best of Minnesota on Sunday in Minneapolis, Minn.
Being only the second home meet, the girls get the advantage of not having to travel and as Rolbiecki added, “we get to compete in Olympic order.”
“Starting on vault as the home team is always nice because it gets the girls fired up. They can channel that energy into explosive vaults,” Rolbiecki said.
She added, “It is also nice to finish on floor since that is their favorite event to compete, and they can show off and have fun out there.”
Rolbeicki said she is extremely happy with the team’s performance so far this season, and they have already broken the all time high bar and vault team totals.
