Submitted Photo Seniors Keira Davis (left) and Pavyn Peterson (right) have been teammates for five years with the Minot United gymnastics team and have helped guide the team to success in their final year. Photo provided by Minot United Gymnastics

Time can sometimes move at the speed of light, and it stops for no one.

For Keira Davis and Pavyn Peterson, it feels like only recently that they were introduced to gymnastics, subsequently falling in love with the multi-discipline sport. In reality, that introduction came nearly 15 years ago and both Davis and Peterson have dedicated endless hours of their time trying to perfect their craft.

That’s why it feels a bit surreal to the Minot United seniors that they are about to compete in their final home meet of their careers when they welcome teams across the state to the Minot Municipal Auditorium for the Magi Bowl on Friday, Feb. 6 at 5:30 p.m..

The duo have made a lasting impression on the program, both this season and over the course of their careers with Minot United. Both have had their ups and downs with the sport over the years, but the friends they have made along the way have made all the time, effort and sacrifices worth it as their time in gymnastics reaches its final month.

The two gymnasts crossed paths once joining the Minot United, but their journeys to getting to that point didn’t follow the same script.

A 1-month trial leads to 16 years: Peterson’s journey

First, Peterson learned to crawl. Then, she learned to walk. Soon after that, she was learning gymnastics. Before she knew the ABCs of the alphabet, she was familiarizing herself with the ABCs of gymnastics with parent-taught classes at the local gymnasium.

Peterson began her gymnastics career at Gymagic Gymnastics back when it was located at the State Fairgrounds. As a Velva native, that meant a lot of time in the car with the 30-minute commute one-way to practice each day. She started at the recreational level, allowing her to build skills without having to take part in any competitions. While at the recreational level, she trained in all four gymnastics events: vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise, developing the skill sets required to be successful in each. Peterson was drawn to the uneven bars the most, because “It’s fun to swing.”

Peterson continued to move up the ranks at the recreation level, going from beginner to intermediate to advanced. Eventually, she was asked to join the competitive team, which would participate in competitions.

“I kept getting better and better and they asked me to go on to the team level, so I did Level 3 and that’s where I got better,” Peterson said. “I was put into a group that was a little bit higher skill level than me, so I was younger practicing with high school girls. I think that’s what made me strive to be as good as them.”

Peterson had been in classes with her older sister until she opted to quit the sport. Peterson stuck with it, but that’s not to say that the idea of dropping out was a constant thought in her mind early in her career.

“Back in the old gym I used to cry every day,” Peterson said. “I told my mom one day that I wanted to quit and she told me to give it a month and if I still wanted to quit after a month then I could, but I didn’t. I think I just liked the environment. It’s definitely different from other sports. When you get a new skill, it’s really fun and you want to keep getting new skills.”

Not only did Peteron elect to continue competing in gymnastics, she also began coaching the sport at 14 years old when she had moved from Gymagic to Rebel Athletics of Minot. She’s been coaching ever since, saying that she enjoys teaching the sport she loves to the younger girls.

Peterson joined the Minot United program as a seventh grader. In her six seasons with Minot United, some of her more memorable moments have come off the mat as opposed to on it.

“It’s anything where I’m laughing with my teammates,” Peterson said. “They are a really big part for me, so bus rides have been so much fun and whenever we’re at practice or before practice hanging out and laughing.”

There is more to Peterson than just gymnastics, as she is a three-sport athlete at Velva High School, participating in volleyball in the fall and track and field in the spring. During those seasons, Peterson takes time away from gymnastics.

Minot United coach Cassie Davis is only in her first year leading the team, but she has been around the program in a volunteer role for a number of years and has gotten to know Peterson. In her eyes, Peterson is the definition of a coachable gymnast.

“Pavyn is an easy going gymnast,” Davis said. “She is pretty quiet in the gym, she works on what is assigned for that day. She will ask for feedback on what she could do to improve skills or reassurance that what she suspected she did wrong is what the coach saw too. She has grown as being more of the team leader. She will step up and be the person to do a task that was put out to the whole team to do. She will also think of things that need to be done if I forget to mention something. She will cheer on younger teammates during practice and meets.”

Peterson has embraced the leadership role as a senior, something she said she was always worried about when she was younger. Even though she knew it came with the territory, Peterson wasn’t sure if she would be good at fulfilling the role. But now that she’s a senior, she’s enjoyed that extra responsibility.

“When I was little, I was scared to become the leader because I knew that’s what most older people were,” Peterson said. “Now that I’m the oldest, I like to be encouraging. We have some young girls on the team this year, so it’s nice to be the role model. If they look up to me and see me cheering, that might encourage them to cheer and be encouraging. I’ve also put out there that I’m there if anyone needs to talk. I’ve had a couple of the younger girls come talk to me about problems and I like being someone the whole team can look up to and also keeping them on their feet as to what’s right and what’s wrong.”

On the mat, Peterson admitted that her senior season hasn’t gone as well as her junior season when it comes to the scores she’s generated at meets, but also said that she’s having a lot more fun overall. Last year, Peterson finished sixth at state in the floor exercise. During the West Region meet, Peterson placed sixth in the all-around, taking fifth in the uneven bars, eighth in the floor exercise and 10th on the balance beam.

This season, Peterson has had three top-five finishes in both the floor exercise and uneven bars and two top-five finishes in the vault and beam. She put up her best all-around performance during a dual against Mandan on Jan. 16, scoring a total of 35.550 points. Her top overall score in any event came on the balance beam, when she twice posted a 9.500.

While Peterson will miss the sport and all her teammates, she is a bit relieved to be able to focus her attention elsewhere as she heads off to college next year. She still plans on coaching the younger generation when she returns in the summer.

“It will be a lot of emotions because I have been kind of looking forward to being done with gymnastics just because it’s been a lot,” Peterson said. “It will be sad for it to be my last home meet with all my friends and all my teammates. You get close with other teams, too. Coming to the end, it’s going to be hard to be leaving everyone behind.”

If there’s one thing gymnastics has taught her over her 16-year career in the sport, it’s that you can do anything you set your mind to as long as you’re willing to commit yourself to achieving that goal.

“I’ve learned how to push myself and if something seems impossible, it will eventually be possible if you work hard for it,” Peterson said.

Long hours and sacrifices pay dividends: Keira’s Journey

Davis grew up as the daughter of a former gymnast and current coach, so it was inevitable that she would one day step on the mat for the first time. The only questions were when would that happen and would gymnastics make the cut on her long list of interests?

Davis was four when she began her gymnastics career, and 14 years later, she’s preparing for the final chapter. Growing up, Davis played a variety of sports, dipping her toes into soccer, dance and swimming, but gymnastics won her heart and eventually she put those other sports to the side to fully commit to her true passion.

“I liked the variety it had,” Davis said. “No other sport had that. It was something I found cool and original. “It was just something I tried for fun because I was doing a bunch of other sports when I was little. I had to choose between a few of them and it just drew me in because I was kind of good at it.”

Unlike Peterson, who had no family history of gymnastics, Davis had it in her genes. Cassie Davis competed in gymnastics, specializing in the vault and floor exercise events and also has over 15 years of coaching experience. She took over the program this year after assisting with the team the past three seasons.

“It has been great seeing Keira grow up in gymnastics and then get to be her coach the final year of her competitive career,” Cassie said. “She has always been in the gym doing gymnastics while I have been coaching. She may not have always been in the class I was coaching but has been present in the gym during the practice. So it’s been neat to see her progressions through the year.”

Keira would join her mom when she would go to work at Gymagic, putting in extra work in the gym. She followed in her mom’s footsteps, focusing on vault and floor exercise. She started on the vault before adding floor exercise to her resume.

“The first year I competed, vault was one of my better events where I started off strong,” Keira said. “And then when I got to high school and was able to do my own skills and try different things, I just found out I was better at more tumbling, powerful events.”

Keira first started fine-tuning her gymnastics skills at the club level at Gymagic before moving on to Rebel Athletics of Minot for a few years and ultimately joined the high school team as an eighth grader.

Keira – a student at Minot High – has experienced plenty of success at the high school level, but it hasn’t come without its fair share of sacrifices. She said she spends roughly 14 hours each week at practice and another two hours daily after practice teaching at Rebel as an instructor. As an instructor, Keira teaches the beginner levels for the girls in competitive classes and has begun choreographing routines.

“I like coaching the kids because I can teach them,” Keira said. “I have experience, so I can put that on them. I learned that kids have their own way of learning so I have to let them do it their way.”

It doesn’t give her much time to do other activities outside of school work. When she does manage to carve out some time for herself, she enjoys hanging out with friends and going to the lake. One of her favorite moments with the team is when all of them took a trip to the lake and spent the day together.

The sacrifices have reaped rewards as Keira finished fourth in both the vault and the floor exercise at state last year, scoring a 9.650 in the floor exercise and a 9.517 in the vault. Both were career highs. At last year’s WDA meet, she was fourth in the all-around with 37.025 points, finishing top five in the vault, balance beam and floor exercise.

“Keira is the type of gymnast that has an idea of what she wants to do and how to go about learning the skill,” Cassie said. “She is more self-motivated in the gym and more head strong on her own ideas. She isn’t afraid to try skills that are different and doesn’t want to do the same skills as other gymnasts.”

Her senior year has been a continuation of last year’s postseason success, placing in the top 10 in the all-around in six meets this year, including three top-three finishes. She won the vault event twice and finished runner-up another time and has finished in the top six in the floor exercise six times this year. She won the floor exercise title at the Chalk War against the Northwest Stars with a season-best score of 9.600. Keira has scored a 9.100 or above in the floor exercise in seven meets this year.

“Knowing it’s my last year, I’ve just been trying to focus on putting out my best work, finishing off my skills strong and trying to end my year right,” Keira said.

Much like Peterson, Keira has fully embraced a leadership position as one of the only two seniors on the roster. With six underclassmen on the team, including a seventh grader and three eighth graders, Keira knows the importance of leading by example.

“As a senior, I feel like the little ones look up to me and Pavyn, so we have to be confident, outgoing and positive with our attitudes because I’ve noticed that they follow what we do, so we just have to make sure we do our best,” Keira said.

With one final home meet on Feb. 6, one final dual against the Northwest Stars on Feb. 13, one final WDA meet on Feb. 20 and one final state meet over the final two days of February, Keira’s time in gymnastics is down to its final few weeks. She is ready to close the book on her gymnastics career and head in a new direction much like Peterson. Whether it’s on the vault, balance beam, uneven bars, floor or off the mat entirely, both have left their mark on the program.

“They will both be missed greatly in the gym and on the competition floor,” Cassie said. “As you go on through the competitive years the team counts on your scores more because of their knowledge and skill talent. For either girl you can count on them to fill in for a gymnast if someone is unable to compete or be there to show the younger teammates what needs to be done and when.”