Owatonna finished third at the state AA gymnastics Friday, up from sixth in 2016. Many of the gymnasts were also on last year's team. Emily An is the team's only senior.

The Huskies 146.475 score was less a half-point behind second-place St. Cloud Tech, who finished at 146.925. Lakeville North won the title with 149.325. OHS coach Tom Smith said, "I'm very, very pleased. We finished sixth last year. We have a couple new competitors. Our whole team shined." He continued, "placed third in AA in the state of Minnesota. There is nothing but pleasure, excitement. These girls definitely deserved it. We were close. It was awesome."

OHS started on the beam and had a few falls. Their 36.2 ended up as the fourth best at the meet. On the floor exercise, Owatonna scored 37.4, which was third best. They followed that up with a meet-high 37.625 on vault. The Huskies' last rotation was uneven bars, where they scored 35.250, the fourth-best score.

Eighth-grader Lindsay Bangs had Owatonna's best score on vault (9.55), floor (9.625) and balance beam (9.475). At Thursday's tournament banquet, Bangs was named to the All-State Elite team. Junior Becca Olson led the Huskies with 9.1 on the bars.

Bangs, Olson, Syd Kretlow, Ali An and Lucy Macius all compete in Saturday's individual tournament beginning at 6PM at the Sports Pavilion at the University of Minnesota. KRFO AM 1390 will provide live updates, along with coverage of the Section 1AAA wrestling tournament at Mayo Civic Center in Rochester.

Detroit Lakes repeated as the Class A champion with a tournament-record 151.675. Austin captured third. Mankato West was seventh.

Owatonna
Roy Koenig/Townsquare Media
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