Saving the Day

Owatonna gymnast Ava Maves elegantly pushes off the vault during her routine. Maves was asked to step in as Owatonna’s all-around athlete after Theis went down with an injury. Staff photo by Johnnie Phillips
Owatonna gymnastics faced a scary scenario at the Lakeville Invite last weekend when standout all-around athlete Halle Theis went down with an injury in the team’s first event.
Theis nailed a 9.550-point routine on her first vault, but her second attempt ended in tears after she landed at an awkward angle and had to be carried off the floor by head coach Evan Moe.
“I landed super short and it just jacked up my ankle. It was fine not to do the rest of the events, but hopefully I can come back quickly and better than ever,” said Theis.
Theis’s injury and subsequent absence from competition left Moe in a strategic bind ahead of the team’s next event.
Every team must have at least one all-around athlete to be eligible for scoring, meaning someone had to fill in for Theis after she was removed from competition.
The senior had anchored the team’s vault routines, which left Owatonna having to choose between one of its first four vault athletes to go on as her all-around replacement.
Moe elected to call on eighth-grader Ava Maves.
“It felt good that he could trust me to take Halle’s spot and that I could be the next all-arounder,” said Maves.
Moe’s trust in Maves was not without some risk.
“She’s never done varsity beam,” said Moe during an interview shortly after his decision to go with Maves. “We’re going to get to see what she can do.”
“I was just definitely nervous because it’s different from junior varsity. It matters more. But also, I was competing a new skill, so I was really nervous knowing I had to put my best foot forward,” said Maves.
Luckily for Maves, the bars came after vault, giving her some time to settle into her role in a more familiar event.
The eighth grader scored a 7.050 on the bars to follow an 8.700 on the vault, leading her into her beam debut.
The beam is typically one of the Huskies’ top events, meaning all eyes were trained on Maves to keep competitive with her teammates Kendra Miller, Delia Neumann, Chloe Myer and Averie Roush.
Miller led the pack with a 9.400-point routine while Neumann (9.200) and Myer (8.700) helped set the Huskies up at 27.300 points.
Senior captain Averie Roush figured to be one of the team’s top scorers, but a slip on her dismount resulted in a steep penalty that kept her at a 7.400.
With even more pressure to perform, Maves excelled and scored an 8.400 to help the Huskies finish with 35.700 points.
Owatonna capped its meet on the floor where the team scored 37.200 points – it’s highest event total of the day.
Leading all Huskies in scoring was none other than Maves with a 9.600-point routine.
Her teammates swarmed her when the judge’s showed her score.
“I’ve never got that big of a score this early in the season. It was pretty special,” said Maves with a smile.
“It means a lot knowing just how deep our team is in skills, knowing that we can have girls step up when one person goes down. I’m really proud that everyone could go out there and do their best and step up for me when I was down,” said Theis.
“I’m really tired. I was taking naps between events,” said Maves with a laugh. “It feels really nice to fully complete it and know that I completed an all-around.”
Event Scores
Vault – 36.250
- Halle Theis – 9.550
- Johanna Spielman – 9.100
- Dylann Norrid – 8.900
- Ava Maves – 8.700
Bars – 34.900
- Delia Neumann - 9.350
- Dylann Norrid – 8.750
- Chloe Myer – 8.450
- Averie Roush – 8.350
Beam – 35.700
- Kendra Miller – 9.400
- Delia Neumann – 9.200
- Chloe Myer – 8.700
- Ava Maves – 8.400
Floor – 37.200
- Ava Maves – 9.600
- Kendra Miller – 9.300
- Johanna Spielman – 9.200
- Chloe Myer – 9.100