State gymnastics
JCC’s Rosenbrook; MCA’s Schultz to compete
Jackson County Central and Martin County Area will both have one athlete competing in two events in the individual portion of the state Class A gymnastics meet at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul.
The team portion of the meet is Friday, with the individual competition on Saturday. Meet time is 11 a.m. both days.
Class AA uses the same format starting at 6 p.m. each day.
Team day
Big South Conference champion Worthington will represent Section 3A in the Class A team competition. The Trojans’ program also has athletes from Adrian and Heron Lake-Okabena competing.
When a team based in Worthington qualifies for the state gymnastics meet, it tends to come in bunches.
The team based in Worthington has gone to state 11 straight years, a streak started in 2015. Worthington also had an earlier streak of four straight years.
Before that, there was one trip to state before the turn of the century.
Officially, those trips are listed as such by the Minnesota State High School League:
Worthington: 1992
Worthington/Adrian: 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025.
Worthington/Adrian/Fulda: 2017, 2018
Worthington/Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
Jackson Blue Jay teams coached by Daryl “Barney” Olson went to state 11 consecutive years and 17 times in 19 years.
Here are the trips for Jackson High School:
Jackson: 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995
Four of those teams won state titles:
1979
1980
1984
1986
Then came two seasons of being recognized as Jackson/Heron Lake-Okabena by the MSHSL.
That list:
Jackson/Heron Lake-Okabena-Lakefield: 1996, 1997
Then, after Jackson and Lakefield merged to form Jackson County Central there were five more trips to state under the Huskies’ banner:
Jackson County Central: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2012, 2013
Gymnastics programs involving Martin County West athletes had a successful run with eight trips to state:
Martin County West/North Kossuth: 2005, 2006
Martin County West: 2007, 2008, 2009
Martin County Area: 2010, 2011, 2014
2025 meet
Here are some things you should know about this year’s state team competition.
A new team champion is assured in each class. In Class A, Monticello qualified for the third time and first since 2004 by winning Section 7A over defending state champion Becker. In Class AA, Owatonna advanced out of Section 1AA ahead of reigning Class AA champion Lakeville South..
Three Class A teams are in the state meet for the first time in a while. Byron is making its third trip and first since 1991; Benson/KMS advanced for the second time and the first since 1994; and Mankato East is at state for the eighth time (five in Class A and three in Class AA) and first since 2004.
Watertown-Mayer/Mound Westonka extended its state-qualifying streak in Class A to 11 years. It was the state runner-up last season.
State meet teams
The teams competing in each class:
Class A
1A: Byron
2A: Mankato East
3A: Worthington
4A: Breck
5A: Watertown-Mayer/Mound-Westonka
6A: Benson/Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg
7A: Monticello
8A: Detroit Lakes
Class AA
1AA: Owatonna
2AA: New Prague
3AA: East Ridge
4AA: Cretin-Derham Hall
5AA: St. Michael-Albertville
6AA: Hopkins
7AA: Forest Lake
8AA: St. Cloud
Individual day
JCC senior will represent Section 3A on bars and floor Saturday, while Martin County Area freshman Lillie Schultz will compete from Section 2A on bars and beam.
Rosenbrook will compete on bars in the third rotation and floor in the seventh rotation. Schultz will wait a while for her chance as she’ll compete on bars in the sixth rotation and beam in the eighth.
Here’s a list of all the Big South Conference gymnasts competing Saturday:
Jackson County Central
Romi Rosenbrook: Bars, Floor
Luverne
Amira Cowell: Vault, Bars, Beam, Floor, All Around
Kianna Winter: Floor
Martin County Area
Lillie Schultz: Bars, Beam
Pipestone
Kaysa Douty: Vault, Bars, Beam, Floor, All Around
Redwood Valley
Brynn Green: Bars, Beam
Chloe Walter: Floor
St. Peter
Trista Landsom: Bars
Waseca
Bella Wikan: Vault, Bars, Beam, Floor, All Around
Windom/Mountain Lake
Ada Lund: Vault
Worthington
Jada Milbrath: Bars, Beam
Marley Phomsatry: Vault
Lucy Thier: Vault, Bars, Beam, Floor, All Around
Kennadie Thiner: Beam
Isabella Lazzu: Vault
Individual champions
Athletes from the current JCC program have won six individual state titles. Those from the current MCA program have one.
Jackson
Cheryl Sether: 1979 beam, 1979 all around, 1981 beam
Ellie Dunlavey: 1982 vault, 1982 floor
Tracy Rohloff: 1989 vault
Fairmont
Diane Hill: 1992 vault
Here are some things you should know about this year’s state individual competition.
Waseca’s Bella Wilkan, now a senior, was a medal winner at last year’s state meet, placing fourth on bars. Sophomore Kayla Douty of Pipestone was 10th on beam.
North Branch Area senior Dakota Esget returns to defend her Class A all-around championship. She also won the uneven bars competition and was the floor runner-up.
Cretin-Derham Hall senior Delaney Cunningham was last year’s Class AA uneven bars champion and is the top returning all-around finisher after taking third last year.
Local judges
There are three judges from the area who will be working at the state meet:
Kelly Bateman, Sherburn
Bob Duffey, Fairmont
Stephanie Gordon, Lakefield