Reflecting on their meet against Breck, junior captain Maddie Olson said the team was strongest on beam, but will continue to work on the execution of the routines.

“Our varsity beam went really well. We had a lot of girls stick their routines and our floor went really well. We got some high scores,” Olson said. “We should just focus on our form. We could have done better on that because our skills are all there, we have skills (that have) very high potential, but we lose a lot of points on our form. A bent leg here and there can really add up.”

According to coach Dawn Thielen, the confidence the team has while performing routines has improved, but there are always ways to get better. 

“They did really, really, really well. They looked more confident, which is great. Their teams are coming together,” Thielen said. “There’s always little things that we could nitpick on, but I’m really happy, they did awesome.”

Freshman Sophia Earle said the team continued to support each other even when mistakes were made.

“I feel like we did our best and we tried to make sure that we kept our energy up and made sure that we brought each other up for the team,” Earle said. “Beam went really well because even if we fell off the beam, we still got back up and we cheered each other on and kept going.”

According to Thielen, the team completed a mock meet during practice to prepare for the meet in order to gain confidence.

“We did a surprise mock meet about a week ago, they had no idea it was happening. We brought spectators in and I judged them to put all the pressure on them and I said, ‘This is your moment. You need to own your skills and learn how to handle it.’” We’ve been just working on handling that pressure and gathering confidence,” Thielen said.

Earle said in the upcoming meets, Park needs to motivate each other from the beginning to ensure trust in themselves.

“We could have, as a team, just made sure that we were being loud,” Earle said. “I think our bars could have been a bit better because it started off the meet and we were a little slow getting into it and I feel like we could have amped up the energy.”

According to Olson, the team talks at the beginning of each meet are crucial for a clear mind.

“We always have a talk before the meet starts and say what we want to accomplish and how we want to approach the meet and how we want our attitude to be,” Olson said. “I think that’s always a key moment, not only in this mee but in every meet, just to prepare our mind and clear our thoughts before we compete.”

The team’s next meet will be against Henry Sibley 11 a.m. Jan. 18 at Henry Sibley High School.