A club gymnast since she was very young, Mahtomedi senior Kasey Lenarz has a tried-and-true method for dealing with nerves before a big meet.
Faced with her first MSHSL gymnastics individual state meet Saturday, Lenarz did just what's she's always done to shoo away butterflies: She danced, boogieing her way straight into the Class 1A vault and balance beam championships and holding off a hard charge from defending champion Maddie Mullenbach of Austin to win the all-around competition with a score of 38.6.
"I knew I was going to be nervous because this was my last meet ever," said Lenarz, whose all-around score was just .15 shy of the Class 1A state meet record. "I wanted to come out and have fun. I love to dance. When the music played, that's what I did between events."
Lenarz wasted no time setting the tone for her meet. She led off the day's vaulting competition with a 9.825, a score that stood atop the standings from start to finish. She followed with a meet-winning 9.55 on balance beam ("I'm not a beam person. I'm always nervous on beam," she admitted) and cut a rug to the all-around crown after that.
"I just have fun dancing," Lenarz said. "I had a few people tell me, 'Don't quit your day job,' because my dancing was a little bad. I did get a compliment on my dancing, which made me very happy."
Mahtomedi coach Deb Driscoll said she thought Lenarz, who had reached a Level 10 in club gymnastics, had a chance to win the all-around when Driscoll found out last fall that Lenarz was joining the team.
"This is exactly what I hoped would happen," said Driscoll, who is in her 40th season as the Zephyrs head coach.
Driscoll compared Lenarz to Mindy Myhre, who won four consecutive Class 1A all-around titles for Mahtomedi from 1991 through 1994.
