Junior Molly Miller said she is looking forward to her team applying new skills at the invitational meet Saturday, Jan. 19.

“I am excited to see what my teammates and I can do because during practice we are working on a lot of new skills,” Miller said.  

According to head coach Dawn Thielen, the team prepares the same way for invitational and dual meets, but focuses on new techniques.

“We use (invitational meets) to try out new skills in our routines to see how they score before our conference meets and sections come up,” Thielen said.

According to Miller, this season the team has been successfully growing together every day.

“Some people are picking up new skills everyday such as back tucks, front layouts, and improving releases on the high bar,” Miller said.

Sophomore Marissa Boettcher said she is apprehensive about the meet because of the recent injuries among her teammates.

“One of our top gymnasts (is injured), so it is going to be tough scoring just because she is normally the highest scoring competitor,” Boettcher said.

Thielen said she is proud of the team’s improvements this year, but it is difficult to compare to previous years.

“This season has gone pretty well, but considering that we have had far less meets this year compared to last year at this time, I can’t really compare us,” Thielen said.

Miller said she hopes the teams’ newly acquired skills can help better the teams scores than from preceding meets.

“I am not sure how we placed last year at this meet, but I hope we place third this time,” Miller said. “We placed fifth at MGGOA (a previous meet), but I hope we can improve our placement.”

Boettcher said she believes the team will do well due to all the time and effort they have put in to prepare.

“I think we have been working really hard, and I think it will pay off at the meet,” Boettcher said. “All we really have to do is just try to set personal records and do our best.”

The meet will take place 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 19 at Henry Sibley High School.