Submitted Photo The Minot United gymnastics team has placed in the top two in all of its meets this season, including a win at the Mandan Christmas Meet in December and a pair of dual victories. Photo provided by Minot United gymnastics.

When it comes to high school gymnastics in the state of North Dakota, there is Dickinson and then there is everybody else.

While Minot United would love nothing more than to be the program responsible for knocking the Mavericks off the mantle and bring an end to a decade’s worth of dominance, they are also content with being the best of the rest, which they have been this season.

Minot United has competed in five meets this season, taking second behind Dickinson in the four where the two programs matched up against one another. With the Mavericks not part of the field, Minot United claimed the Mandan Christmas Meet, besting the likes of Bismarck Century, Mandan, Bismarck Legacy and Bismarck High. Minot United also has dual victories over Northwest Stars and Mandan this season.

Seniors Keira Davis and Pavyn Peterson, junior Gracyn Bergan and eighth grader Adylin Belnap are the four primary gymnasts on the Minot United roster, responsible for the bulk of their overall team scores during meets. They have also received top-10 finishes from some of the newer additions to the team in Cadence Bagi, Lidia Chen, Laikyn Halverson, Alayna Newsome and Lexi McLeod.

“I’ve tried to give each individual girl a chance to prove herself,” Minot United coach Cassie Davis said. “I’ve tried to let the new girls compete instead of just letting all the older girls that I know can do this. I’ve given them a chance to prove themselves and if they prove themselves I’ll put them at that event. Just because I want all my juniors to compete in the all-around, if your score isn’t up there then I don’t put you up for that event. I let them prove themselves individually at each event.”

Cassie Davis – Keira’s mom – is in her first season as head coach of the team, taking over for Robbie Werchau. Davis has been involved with the program the past three years and brings with her more than 15 years of coaching experience.

Minot United placed third at both WDA and state last year, coming in behind Dickinson and Jamestown. It was the second straight season Minot United took third at state, cracking the top three for the first time since 2016, when they finished runners-up to Dickinson. Minot United is looking toward that second place position at state as the goal, hoping to keep it close with the Mavericks.

Minot United is the last team not named Dickinson to capture a state title, doing so in 2015. They won state four straight years between 2009-12, but the sport has belonged to the Mavericks ever since. Dickinson has won state 10 consecutive years and 12 of the last 13. Some years have been close, like in 2017 when they held off Bismarck High by 0.783 points, but the last two have not. Dickinson won the 2024 title by more than 8.5 points and the 2025 title by nearly five points, both coming over Jamestown. Minot United finished 11 points back of Dickinson in 2024 and eight back in 2025.

The closest Minot United has come to Dickinson this season was at the Jamestown Travel Meet on Jan. 3, when they finished less than five points behind the Mavericks. Bergan and Belnap finished tied for third in the all-around with 35.575 points. Minot United had a gymnast place in the top four in all four events. Keira Davis placed second in the floor exercises and fourth on the balance beam. Bergan finished third on the vault and Belnap was fourth on the uneven bars.

“We’ve all tried our hardest,” Bergan said. “Dickinson has really talented gymnasts and we both do. We’re all just trying our best at each meet. It motivates us a lot because we do want to try and beat them, but it does motivate us to do our best and we’re excited for the challenge.”

The consistent second-place finishes at meets hasn’t discouraged Minot United, but rather pushed them harder to improve, which they have as the season has progressed. Minot United is coming off its best meet in terms of team score when they took second at the Mandan Meet on Jan. 15, scoring 142.775 points. Their previous best was at the Mandan Christmas Meet on Dec. 19 in which they totaled 142.300 for their only meet victory so far this season.

“As a team, from the beginning it was a little rough, but we’ve worked through it and started to get the feel of it again,” Keira Davis said. “We’ve had some new people join the team and I feel like they are starting to get the hang of it now.”

At the Mandan Meet, Keira Davis finished second behind Dickinson’s Aspen Roadarmel in the all-around, taking second in the vault and third in the floor exercises. Keira Davis said she considers the vault and floor exercises to be her best events.

“I’m just more of a powerful gymnast,” Keira Davis said. “With bars and beam, you have to be more graceful and steady, but floor and vault, you can just run and do it.”

Keira Davis, Belnap, Peterson and Bergan routinely compete in all four events at each meet, but each of them have events in which they are the strongest. For Davis and Bergan, it’s the vault and the floor exercises. For Belnap, it’s the uneven bars and the balance beam. And for Peterson, it’s the uneven bars and the floor exercises.

All four have also had their shining moments at specific meets. Keira Davis recorded back-to-back runner-up finishes in the all-around at the Chalk War Dual against Northwest Stars and at the Mandan Meet. She won both the vault and floor exercises during the Chalk War, scoring a season-best 9.600 in the floor exercise. In that same dual, she also set a new season best on vault with a 9.100.

Belnap starred in the Mandan Christmas Meet, taking the all-around crown with a total score of 36.600, winning the uneven bars and the balance beam in the process. She scored a 9.500 on beam and a 9.250 on the uneven bars.

The Jamestown Travel Meet was Bergan’s top showing, coming in third in the all-around and taking third in the vault and fourth in the floor exercises. Her vault of 9.225 was her best this year.

Peterson saved her best for the most recent dual with Mandan last weekend, scoring 35.550 points to capture the all-around title. She placed in the top five in all five events, winning on the balance beam and uneven bars. She eclipsed a 9.000 for the first time this season on the uneven bars, posting a 9.200.

“We all have our own events, but we can all come together and we just support each other as best we can because we understand it’s not the best some days,” Keira Davis said. “When Pavyn won in the last meet, that was one of her best days and it was really exciting for us to see.”

Minot United still has a few meets remaining this season before the WDA Championships on Feb. 20 and the two-day State Championships beginning on Feb. 27, including their own Minot Bowl Meet on Feb. 6. They are looking to fine-tune some areas of their performances to ensure themselves of that top-two spot behind Dickinson.

“We’re trying to not get any mistakes on beam, not get any mistakes on bar,” Cassie Davis said. “We’re trying to take it event by event and try and improve a little bit.”

Cassie Davis said the team is strongest on the vault and in the floor exercises, and has its moments on beam. But it’s the uneven bars where Minot United is looking to see the most improvement before the end of the season.

Minot United finished third at the WDA Championships last season behind Dickinson and Jamestown. Keira Davis was the top gymnast for Minot United, taking fourth in the all-around. She placed fourth in the floor exercise and fifth on both beam and vault. Two of the three gymnasts who finished in front of her in the all-around – Dickinson’s Reygan Strommen and Jamestown’s Julia Skari – graduated last season, leaving Roadarmel as her biggest competition.

She finished 13th in the all-around at state, something Keira Davis is looking to improve upon this year.

“Last year, I didn’t do too well in the all-around, so I want to pump my all-around score up and aim for second or at least top five,” Keira Davis said.

Bergan led the way at the state meet, tying for second on the balance beam and tying for sixth on the uneven bars en route to a seventh-place finish in the all-around.

“You have to have a lot of endurance and focus on the tiny little details like squeezing and pointing your toes,” Bergan said. “I’m trying to make my routines clean and just doing my best.”

Minot United is scheduled to take part in the Jamestown Meet on Friday, Jan. 23, at 5:30 p.m. at the Jamestown Gymnastics Club.