Kuhnau enjoys trip to state

The best is arguably yet to come for Sauk Prairie junior gymnast Heidi Kuhnau. Last Saturday, Kuhnau made her individual state tournament debut, recording a score of 8.483 points on the balance beam to finish 16th out of 28 competitors at the WIAA Division 2 individual state meet in Wisconsin Rapids. Mount Horeb junior Drea O’Connell won the Division 2 balance beam title with 9.333 points. Whitefish Bay teammates Addie Gallun (9.317) and Anneh Britz (9.217) placed second and third, respectively. While Kuhnau didn’t make it on the podium — which required a top-six finish — she got a jump-start on what promises to be an even better senior season. “Heidi did so well yesterday and handled her nerves way better than I could have ever imagined,” Sauk Prairie coach Justine Anderson said on Sunday. “She was so nervous, but held it together for a beautiful performance, though, she did have one fall. “If she would have stayed on, she would have finished in sixth place and been on the podium. But I know there are other girls saying the same thing.” Kuhnau didn’t surpass her score of 8.675 that she posted in earning a fifth-place finish at the WIAA Division 2 Mount Horeb Sectional. But earning the opportunity to compete with the best in the state gave Kuhnau a taste of what it could be like next season, perhaps in other events as well. “Heidi works extremely hard at practice — in and out of season — as well as in the weight room and is a leader for the team in work ethic,” Anderson said.  “She has come a long way in three years at overcoming nerves in competition as well, so this year was a good year to qualify. She 100 percent deserved it.”  Kuhnau’s finish was the program’s best since Stephanie Barnes won the Division 2 uneven parallel bars title in 1999. Barnes’ title is the only individual championship for Sauk Prairie, which has never qualified for state as a team. “It does make us very excited next year because that means she can do it again and is competitive with the rest of the state athletes,” Anderson said. “I’m hoping (Kuhnau) gets to go on more than one event next year, too, because she could have kept up yesterday pretty well.” Gallun won the vault (9.533), uneven bars (9.383) and all-around (37.55) titles. She defeated O’Connell (37.25), who won the floor exercise (9.567) title, and River Falls’ Autumn Tiede (36.249) to finish first in the all-around. Mount Horeb won the Division 2 team championship with a score of 143.216 on Friday. Kuhnau was the Eagles’ first state qualifier since 2017 when Cynthia Flores tied for 25th in the vault (8.2) and Audrey Pape placed 27th in the floor exercise (8.1). Anderson said Kuhnau’s performance will provide a boost to the Eagles’ program. “It definitely got a few of the other girls motivated to stay involved in the offseason to get ready to come back even stronger next year,” Anderson said. “Not sure who we have coming in, but we have more talent and potential throughout this entire team than we have previously had so as long as we can get some kips on bars, we are ready to come back stronger. “Luckily, we only have one senior this year that we are losing, but next year we will have a bunch. Looking forward to using them and what they have learned over the last four years to be more competitive next year.”