Mitchell took home the state ‘AA’ gymnastics title on Friday afternoon in Aberdeen during the 2023 state meet. For the Kernels, this is their sixth state gymnastics championship in the past ten years. Last season, Mitchell finished runner-up to O’Gorman, while this year, the script was flipped with the Kernels finishing in first and the Knights as the runner-up.
“It feels great, that’s always the goal when you go out,” exclaimed Mitchell head gymnastics coach Audra Rew. “There’s so much emotion involved and these kids work so hard, and there’s no defense in gymnastics, so all they can do and do their very best and see how things come out.”
Mitchell placed first with a team score of 148.55. O’Gorman was close behind in second with 148.25, and Harrisburg right afterwards in third with 146.183.
“I just wanted them to go out and not overdo it and not underdo it, just do what they normally do,” coach Rew explained. “This was just another day, another meet, if something happens, you just blow it off and keep rolling. Beam wasn’t maybe our best, but they blew it off, they fought hard, they came back and rocked the next event, so that was really exciting.”
Along with this win being Mitchell’s sixth title in the last decade, it’s also their ninth in sanctioned program history.
“Gymnastics is very big in Mitchell and so I think it means a lot. We were getting videos from preschoolers cheering us on and you know, it just really means a lot to the community,” Rew said. “Mitchell’s not very big, gymnastics is a big deal and they all support us, and it was fun to see so many fans here.”
To view complete team standings and the individual performance scores from the ‘AA’ team session on Friday, click here.
