The Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics team hit the road this past weekend to take on the newest GymACT Program in Indianapolis. The Indy-Hio Hyenas will be a full-fledged GymACT program next year and has been putting together a solid roster of gymnasts from the two-state area of Ohio & Indiana. Coached by long-time Queen City Gymnastics coach, Keith Pettit, the Hyenas are quietly putting together an impressive group of athletes who will be a force to b reckoned with next year in the Eastern Conference.

The format of the meet allowed us to split our team into two full teams, so we created the Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics Team and the Minnesota GymACT Team. Assistant Coach Clay Strother made the trek with us and we arrived in Indianapolis late Friday night after a long van ride.

The meet was held at the Indiana Convention Center and is one of the largest boys’ and girls’ gymnastics meets in the Midwest. We were welcomed with great hospitality, and we competed alongside 9 full rotations of Level 10 boys so it was a very busy night at the gym!!!

The final team results looked like this:

1.     Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics - 317.25

2.     Indy-Hio Hyenas - 299.35

3.     Minnesota GymACT - 291. 60

The depth of the Minnesota program continues to allow us to field two full teams and the score the Minnesota GymACT team posted this evening would land that lineup somewhere near 4th or 5th place in the GymACT National Rankings. “We’ve been very fortunate that we continue to be able to all of our guys the chance to experience the thrill of competing on a collegiate team,” said head coach Mike Burns. “This team continues to demonstrate amazing depth and talent and we are firmly seated in the Number 1 spot in the National Rankings because of the great group of guys we have in the gym,”

Event Champions looked like this:

·       All Around: Kellen Ryan - 80.00

·       Floor Exercise: Charlie Larson - 14.00

·       Pommel Horse: Jack Gagamov - 13.25

·       Still Rings: Kellen Ryan - 14.15

·       Vault: Kellen Ryan - 14.45

·       Parallel Bars: Kellen Ryan & David Grossman - 13.90

·       High Bar: Aaron Novick - 13.05

The Team & Individual National Rankings continue to be populated by lots of Minnesota gymnasts and the buzz we’ve created in the GymACT League and throughout the world of men’s collegiate gymnastics continues to fuel the fire of what’s going on in Cooke Hall on a daily basis. “These guys continue to stay focused and motivated on their goals and it’s very exciting to see their desire to make the necessary improvements to achieve those goals,” said Burns. “We’re really lucky to have an awesome blend of physical talent and mental toughness in the gym, and when one guy falters, there’s always someone there to pick up the slack and help pull each other up to a new level of excellence.”

The season continues this Saturday, March 2nd as the team will compete in the MIGS Program Invitational. We’ll split the team into two teams again and do battle against ourselves in an intrasquad type of competition. This will give us one more opportunity to see everyone on the team compete in front of judges to give us more statistics to utilize as we start to see the Championships portion of our season on the horizon.

Thanks go out to ALL those who have supported the efforts of this amazing team with your donations of both time and money – we truly couldn’t do it without you.

The team will be setting up the equipment on Friday night, March 1st, at 5:30 pm at Humboldt High School again and if anyone would like to lend a hand it would be greatly appreciated. It usually takes about 3 hours to get the gym set up along with the Awards Gym and the Hospitality Room. If you’d like more info on how you can come and help us out, please contact me at burns265@gmail.com.

Or just sign up on this Google Sheet so know who to expect at set up and tear down: MIGSP Invite Sign Up Sheet  Any trouble opening the sheet, drop me an email!

Until then, keep cheering on these young men as they continue of their quest of excellence!!!

And if you’re able to, please make a donation to the Friends of Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics at this site: https://www.friendsofmnmensgym.org/donate-to-the-fmmg