Submitted photo New Ulm’s Kayla Goblirsch will compete at the Class A state gymnastics meet in the All-Around beginning Friday at Champlin Park High School.

NEW ULM — Junior Kayla Goblirsch will represent the New Ulm gymnastics team for the third time in her career at state this Friday when she competes at the 2021 State Gymnastics Meet.

Goblirsch qualified for state in the all-around after the Section 2A meet in New Prague this past Friday. At the 2A meet, she finished first in the beam (9.3) and first in the vault (9.1) That beam score was her highest score this season in the event, and she also had a season-high bars score at the section meet with a 9.3.

Her best scores in the vault and all-around this season were a 9.5 and 36.575, respectively, scores she set at the Big South Championship. Her highest score on floor this year was a 9.55, set at a home meet against Waseca.

“I’m really excited,” Goblirsch said of returning to state. “I feel that I came into this season a little bit less prepared than normal, just not being able to practice when everything shut down right before the season. But I feel like I’m starting to get my skills back and I feel ready to go for state.”

Goblirsch said that she wasn’t able to get much gymnastics practice in during 2020 and had to rely on staying in shape in other ways.

“Gymnastics is a really hard sport to practice without being in the gym, because you need all the equipment,” she said. “So the biggest thing was just staying active at home, going on walks, biking, golfing, doing that type of stuff.”

Goblirsch’s averages in each event this season are 9.175 (vault), 8.285 (bars), 8.65 (beam), 9.0275 (floor) and 35.15 (all-around).

Goblirsch said that with two years of state gymnastics experience under her belt, she knows what to expect and is hoping to improve on prior years.

“I think my first year I was just really nervous going into it because I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “And I think last year I had a lot more confidence with the first-year experience. So I’m just hoping to build on that confidence this year and hopefully it’s the best year yet.”

This year’s tournament takes place at Champlin Park High School, with Class A beginning the tournament on Friday, while Class AA concludes things on Saturday. Goblirsch will participate in the second session at 6 p.m. on Friday.

Goblirsch finished 15th overall for the all-around at the Class A state tournament last year.