Cougars earn historic gymnastics championship

South wins state Class AA team meet

Anybody who follows Minnesota high school gymnastics knows about Lakeville’s place in the sport. Last weekend, Lakeville South made a significant addition to the legacy.

The Cougars won the Class AA team title by 2.5 points Feb. 23 at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, earning the school’s first state gymnastics championship – team or individual.

Until now, all the Lakeville gymnastics championships had been won by another school. In the late 1970s legendary coach Milan Mader started building the foundation for what became a dynasty at Lakeville High School, which in 2005 became Lakeville North. It produced 13 state team championships, including nine in an 11-year stretch from 1993 to 2003. Lakeville North added three more in 2017, 2019, 2020 with Teri Homan as head coach.

Lakeville South was almost an afterthought. Until this year the Cougars had qualified for the state team competition twice, with the best finish a tie for second in Class A in 2006. They hadn’t been to state as a team since 2008, and in a number of those years it was Lakeville North blocking the Cougars’ path.

Now, South has carved its own place in Lakeville gymnastics history.

“It’s so important, and I feel so honored to be part of it,” senior captain Autumn Schmidt said. “And we worked so hard to get here, so I’m just really proud of the team and how everyone’s done.”

Coach Dusty Rotegard said he could see the Cougars were on the verge. Last year the Cougars were ranked second in Class AA and had the top three all-around finishers at the Section 1AA meet, but Owatonna got past them in the team competition.

“I think we’ve gotten second in the section six or seven times,” Rotegard said. “The seniors were really determined to get to state. That was our big push.”

Top-ranked South defeated No. 2-ranked Owatonna by half a point in the Section 1AA meet Feb. 16 to earn its place at state. No. 3-ranked Elk River-Zimmerman also failed to make it out of its section.

The Cougars’ closest competition at state appeared to be Cretin-Derham Hall, which won the Section 4AA championship with a score within a half-point of South’s Section 1AA-winning score.

It turned out the state team competition was never really in doubt. The Cougars had the highest score in three of the four events and were second on floor exercise. They scored 147.40 points, with CDH second at 144.90 and Hopkins third with 144.45.

Balance beam, which derailed the Cougars at the 2023 section meet, was a strength at this year’s state meet. They had no falls in the event.

“We went 5-for-5 on beam,” Schmidt said. “We did that at sections, but tonight it was just so much more special. We felt confident, we hit every skill. Then we went to floor (the Cougars’ last event) and were able to just dance and kind of show it off. That’s when I felt like we had it.”

Schmidt, ninth-grader Piper Keith, sophomore Summer Theis and eighth-grader Julia Olson competed in all four events at the state team meet. Ninth-grader Reese King did three events, and junior Molly Ruhland competed on vault.

The Cougars had four scores of 9.225 or better on vault, led by Keith’s 9.55. All five South gymnasts scored 9.0 or better on beam; no other team had more than three. Schmidt was South’s top scorer on beam with 9.5.

Schmidt (9.45) and 9.35 were the South leaders on uneven parallel bars. Olson and Keith both scored 9.4 on floor exercise.

Lakeville South had to regroup – and adjust its lineup – after losing senior captain Alexa Drew in midseason. Drew sustained multiple injuries, including a dislocated elbow and fractures to both arms, while competing on bars in a Jan. 9 meet. She finished third on vault at the 2023 Class AA meet and was a likely medal contender this year.

After Drew’s injury, Theis became an all-arounder and other spots in the lineup were back-filled. Drew became essentially an assistant coach.

“I’m incredibly proud of every single one of these girls that stepped up in my place,” Drew said. “I’m so proud of them for having the courage to even be there. This is huge for them.”

Only two of the Cougars’ top 10 gymnasts (Schmidt and Drew) are seniors. “All the girls are so capable of getting themselves there for the next few seasons,” Schmidt said. “I’m happy that I got to be part of the first one so we could light the fire and have it continue.”