AURORA – A year ago, at the Colorado High School Activities Association’s 2023 Gymnastics State Championships, Frankie MacAskill performed as one of the best gymnasts in the state.
She won the vault individual state championship and finished second on the 5A all-around, floor, and uneven bars leaderboards.
“Her best event is vault,” Becky Linnenburger, the gymnastics head coach at Mountain Range, detailed. “She doesn’t have a weak event, but she is just a powerhouse on vault. The entire gym turns their heads when she vaults.”
MacAskill also helped the Mountain Range Mustangs to their second-ever gymnastics team state championship, their first since 2007, and their first-ever in Class 5A.
Now, the Mountain Range senior gymnast is not only trying to help her team defend its state title, but trying to cement her place in the history books, as well.
“One of my big goals for this season is beating my school’s record for an all-around athlete, which is 38.675,” MacAskill shared. “This weekend I was three-tenths of a point away, so I’m really close now, and it’s just so exciting to think I could have my name in front of my school’s all-around record long after I graduate.”
MacAskill’s aspirations don’t stop there though. The defending 5A floor state champ also has her eyes set on the 5A all-around state championship, which she lost by just 0.650 points last year.
With last year’s 5A all-around state champion, Lakewood’s Lauren Burt, who also narrowly edged out MacAskill with her floor and bars routine, it opens up some opportunities for MacAskill, though that departure cuts both ways.
On one hand, it clears the path for MacAskill to chase the coveted all-around state crown and increases the likelihood that she can accomplish a feat that has happened just twice since 2012 – win four individual state championships in a single season (Amber Boll, Lakewood, 2018; Isabella Gee, Lakewood, 2021).
On the other hand, MacAskill is sad to lose such a remarkably talented competitor, especially one who pushed her in such a positive way.
“I go into every competition hoping there are 10 people in the gym who are better than me,” MacAskill said. “I never want to walk into a competition knowing I’m the best one there or that I’m certain to win, because that’s not the kind of athlete I am. Yes, I have high expectations for myself, but having another great athlete there to push me is powerful. . . Lauren [Burt]’s presence definitely put a lot of pressure on my shoulders. I was so nervous and shaky, but she made me 10 times better that day, and I loved it. I love that competition.”
Now, with a new cast of competitors and so many remarkable opportunities right in front of them, MacAskill and the Mustangs are focusing on bettering themselves and enjoying their remaining time together.
“Our aim is to focus on our own performance and not on what anyone else is doing, because that’s just entirely out of our control,” Coach Linnenburger, explained. “I do hope for Frankie to face some big competition, but I’m really working on just having her focus on herself and our team. Defending our title, setting the Mountain Range all-around record – it’s all goals focused on ourselves and our team and what we can accomplish. We’re also trying to prepare Frankie for the future. She wants to to go to college, so we are putting skills in her routine that aren’t necessarily required for a high school routine, just so she can get that experience for her future.”
“I don’t want to walk away from high school gymnastics, in November, with any regrets,” MacAskill said, echoing her head coach’s sentiment. “I just want to get better every meet and know I’m giving it my all out there, every time I compete. Some weeks we have two or three meets, and it’s going to be hard, mentally and physically, to give each one my all, but I want to strive to do that because I don’t want to leave any competition feeling I could have done more.”
MacAskill is also working on combatting her anxiety, by strengthening her bonds with her teammates and improving her communication with them, and that effort is paying dividends come competition time.
“I can be a very anxious athlete,” the senior shared. “If warm-up doesn’t go well or my day before a meet is bad, I can get in my head, and I really just want to work on leaving my day at the door, and putting all my focus on the gym, once I’m there. I think that’s been helpful so far this season.”
Thankfully, Coach Linnenburger has helped cultivate an environment that should help ease some of those nerves.
“It’s challenging and important to think about how you can channel an athlete’s competitive nature, while also keeping things in perspective and making it fun,” Linnenburger said. “Let’s have fun, let’s make great memories. Even though they’re serious, of course, we try to make our competitions have some goofiness. We have a box of pom poms, cowboy hats, an entire blow-up horse costume, and face paint to just inject some fun into the competition.”
Mountain Range will look to keep the good times rolling at this year’s CHSAA 5A Gymnastics State Championships, Thursday, Nov. 7, through Saturday, Nov. 9, at Thornton High School, in Thornton.