Lady Bulldogs Place Seventh at State Gymnastics Meet

The MHS gymnastics team attended South Dakota’s 2021 state gymnastics meet in Watertown on Friday, February 12. Milbank accumulated 129.325 points to claim seventh place in the Class A bracket.

The meet, normally a two-day event with Class A and AA teams competing together on Friday and Class A and AA individuals competing on Saturday, was modified this year. Class A competed on Friday and Class AA competed on Saturday.  The pods were determined by their finish at the regional meet.  Both Class A team and individual results were based on Friday’s performances. 

Milbank was in Pod No. 2 along with Chamberlain and Estelline-Hendricks.  Amber Fraasch, head coach for the Lady Bulldogs, said, “We beat both teams during our regular season and also lost to both when we had only four in our varsity lineup. So, we knew it would be a battle.“  Coach Fraasch recapped, “We started the meet on bars and had a solid set and did not count a stop or fall.  Scores were low, but stayed consistent.  Tougher rules have made the bar scores really low the last few years.  In fact, there were only four gymnasts that prequalified on this event compared to the 17 that prequalified on the beam and 25 that qualified on floor.”  

Rylie Overby successfully completed her kip and Aubrey Fraasch led the Lady Bulldogs with a 7.600 and a 16th-place finish.
On beam, Madison Mathews and senior Greta Snaza each completed a personal best no-fall presentation.  Aubrey Fraasch also had a no-fall routine and led Milbank with a score of 8.350 that placed her at 13th.  

“We had some of the best floor performances I have seen from this team in the third rotation,” Coach Fraasch stated. Dani Yamaura recorded a score of 8.900 which merited a 15th place finish. Rylie Overby presented a personal best performance that tied her personal best score of 8.500.  Madison Mathews and Greta Snaza followed suit with personal best performances and nice scores. Coach Fraasch said, “Our final event was the vault. Our vaults and scores were not where we wanted them to be. Greta earned a 13th-place finish with a score of 8.625.” In the all-around competition, Aubrey Fraasch posted a 13th-place finish with a score of 32.700.

Fraasch concluded with, “Our lone senior, Greta Snaza, competed her last meet and left it all on the floor. She did not miss a single skill and hit all her events.  She will be greatly missed by her team next year.” 

Top-Milbank Gymnasts bottom-Greta Snaza -photos courtesy of SDPB