It will be a mostly a whole new look with Park gymnastics this season, with really just a trio of veteran returning.
The Wolfpack will be led by a good one, however. Junior Ashley Davis returns …
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It will be a mostly a whole new look with Park gymnastics this season, with really just a trio of veteran returning.
The Wolfpack will be led by a good one, however. Junior Ashley Davis returns after finishing 18th in the vault competition in the 2024 state meet a year ago. This season, Davis should be a strong contender to return to state, this time in the all-around.
But she’ll be doing it with a cast mostly of new teammates.
“We lost six pretty strong seniors,” said Park head coach Ali Flaata. “Two varsity all-arounders and a lot of senior leadership. We have a smaller senior class and a really large junior class so we’re still pretty young I would say. It’s a different team dynamic this year that we’re kind of rebuilding.”
“I think we are going to be a little deeper than we have been going from that varsity lineup to JV, that line is going to be a little more blurred than it has been in the past,” Flaata added. “And I think with Makayla back and Ashley still here we’re going to have those two really strong all-arounders for us. I think we can do as good or better than we did last year. … I think with what they’re showing us so far in their cleanliness and how they’re executing skills is far above where we even were at the end of last year.”
Davis scored a 9.375 in the state meet vault competition, with scores of 9.375 and 9.100 in her two vaults. She placed 18th of 48 competitors in the event. She had two scores of 9.45 from two judges on her first vault. She was the only Park gymnast to qualify for state last season, but Park will still have to replace a ton of talented veteran gymnasts.
“From what we’ve seen so far she’s picking up right where we left off back in February with a couple more skills on bars,” Flaata said of Davis. “So she’s going to start out the gate really strong this year. I don’t anticipate the need to build so much. She should be able to be consistent this year throughout the whole season.”
Davis should be able to score highly on each event, Flaata said. “She added a couple of new things on bars and typically bars is the hardest scoring event in high school gymnastics.”
Davis is a two-time state competitor, last year in year and the year before on bars. If she had to guess, Davis said her strongest events at present might be floor and bars.
“I think we’ve been working all off season, so I feel it’s really going to pay off this season,” said Davis. “I think I just need to clean up everything, but overall practices have been going good.”
It was a senior-dominated Park team last season, including all-around standout Emily Dahlstrom, along with Natalya Rugel, Annelise Faletti, Vanessa Suh, Ava Klecatsky and Elisa Mellingen. Dahlstrom just missed a repeat trip to state in the all-around last winter, finishing fourth at sections with a score of 35.100.
Returning for the Wolfpack in addition to Davis are veterans senior captain Clara Opichka and sophomore Natalie Peters. Junior Makayla Bollman is also back for Park after missing last season following ACL surgery.
“She (Bollman) has come back stronger than ever and is ready to go on all four events,” Flaata said. “She’s similar to Ashley skill-level wise on most events except for bars.”
Bollman guessed her strongest events might be floor and beam. She’s been back working on her routines for about three months.
“I’ve been working hard, the team’s been working hard,” said Bollman. “And they’ve been encouraging me too so that’s been really helpful.”
Opichka and Peters will both be counted on in multiple events.
“We have a couple that are out with injury right now,” Flaata said. “Natalie who’s a sophomore here. She’s come back pretty strong. She was injured for part of the season last year so we didn’t get her full potential out of her. But especially on floor she’ll be a contender for us for that varsity lineup. Clara Opichka is one of our senior captains. She’s back. She’s just really strong and clean on all of the events that she does.”
It's still a relatively young Park team this season with just four seniors on the 20-strong roster, Opichka, Savanna Woulfe, and exchange students Maya Jozwiak and Greta Armaini.
Davis was sixth in the all-around at sections a year ago with a 34.950 score. Rugel placed 12th overall (32.800) and Opichka was 14th (32.425).
Opichka had a good section meet a year ago and should be a mainstay on this year’s team. She was 18th in the vault at sections a year ago, and placed on bars, beam and floor as well. Peters is another versatile athlete who can compete on all four events.
Newcomers who should figure in Park success this season include Jozwiak and sophomore Isabelle Brown, who joins the team from the perpetual motion program in Woodbury.
Park finished fifth in the section team race last winter with a season-best score of 136.225. Flaata thinks the Wolfpack can be just as competitive this season.
Park opens the season with a home meet against Roseville on Thursday, Dec. 5., starting at 6 p.m.