WEST SALEM — The West Salem co-op gymnastics team reached new heights with two straight WIAA state runner-up finishes, and coach Carrie O’Hearn is excited to see how it handles the promotion that comes with it.
She is encouraged by the improvements made in the program over the past several seasons and the fact that several of the faces transitioning from Division 2 to Division 1 are familiar ones up for the challenge.
“They have the mentality of, ‘We can do this,'” O’Hearn said during a Monday practice at the Panther Den. “I call it a promotion because it’s based on what we’ve done the last three years. Until we get there and see how we’re competing, we won’t know where we fall (in Division 1).
“But they are working just as hard as they always have.”
Senior Kennedy Garbers and juniors Camdyn Lyga and Olivia Maki were all heavy contributors for last season’s runner-up team and said nothing really changes for them as they prepare for the jump. Typical offseason work was done to improve certain skills, but they will continue to simply put together the best routines they can develop for competition and let the rest take care of itself.
“We don’t take (the move to Division 1) as a negative at all because we had to work to get there,” Maki said. “We fought to get our spot there, and we’re going to fight to stay here.
“I’m not nervous. I think it’s important for us to stay positive.”
That shouldn’t be difficult after all three qualified for state individually in addition to their parts with the team.
Lyga placed seventh on the floor exercise, Maki 12th on the balance beam and Garbers 19th all-around. They also helped their team, which is made up of gymnasts from West Salem, Aquinas and Bangor, to a score of 140.2335.
They will begin their march toward a similar score with their first meet of the season Thursday, when they host Holmen and Wisconsin Rapids in a 6 p.m. triangular at West Salem High School. An alumni meet follows on Saturday.
The Panthers have qualified for state as a team three consecutive years and six times since 2017. They were sixth in 2022 before the two runner-up performances, and O’Hearn thinks the new practice facility created for the team in 2019 has played a big role in the development of her competitors.
“The Panther Den has been a game-changer,” she said. “I always knew that when we had a facility like this and were able to eliminate the setup and tear-down every day that our team could do special things.
“If you look, the benefits have all come in the last three years.”
Garbers and senior Hailey Ives have both competed in all three of those state competitions, and Lyga and Maki have been there for the past two. They are all focused on increasing that participation by another year, and that was reflected in offseason work.
Maki said open gyms and camps have benefitted the team as a whole and even said the variety of coaching that comes with that can help them perfect skills and develop better routines. O’Hearn said Maki has taken advantage of that.
“She has that gorgeous beam routine, which is rock solid,” O’Hearn said of Maki. “She has upgraded her floor tumbling passes, and she is working on the tsuk on the vault. She is motivated and determined.”
Lyga, also a volleyball and softball player at Bangor, had a little different offseason, but shares Maki’s determination and motivation. She has to in order to be her best at all three sports.
“I have a lot going during the week and on weekends with volleyball and softball, so I have to work a lot on my own,” Lyga said of balancing the three over the summer months. “But I find a way to get in the gym quite a bit to work on some of the skills I need to work on.
“I’ve been working on my one-and-a-half on floor, and that’s going along pretty well. I’m also working on some other tumbling for floor and new series on beam and bars, and I’m always working toward that harder vault.”
Garbers has reached into the sport’s recent past for a lynchpin in her competitive approach and is adopting the senior floor routine of Caelen Lansing, a Central graduate and Wisconsin High School Gymnastics Association Gymnast of the Year who competed at both the University of Iowa and UW-La Crosse.
“She is huge on the floor for us and is a strong competitor in the other events,” O’Hearn said of Garbers. “The routine is a tribute to Caelen Lansing, who has retired from competing, and it’s pretty cool to see that routine come to life in this gym.”
Garbers, also a distance runner at West Salem, said she made time to work on the little things in some events and a new bar dismount. Lansing was also there to help her with the new floor routine.
“I’m really trying to tighten routines up,” she said. “That means doing the little things better. I’m not sure if we will see the twisting dismount this season, but I’m working on it.
“I would like to make more improvements on bars and improve those scores, so I’ve definitely worked hard on that.”
