For the first time since 1988, the Michigan State Spartans are headed to the national championships as a team. During Saturday night’s meet against LSU, Kentucky, and Arkansas, Michigan State scored its second-highest score of the year hitting 198.00, just a half of a tenth behind the reigning national champions.
“[We came into this meet] just really relaxed and confident,” said head coach Mike Rowe who is in his eighth season for the Spartans. “We did a lot of psych work after last season. We had the talent, we had the consistency, but something just went wrong last year at the final.” After narrowly missing nationals in 2024, getting to Texas has been the ultimate goal for this team.
Rowe shared the approach he has taken with his team of working on themselves internally as a team, emphasizing positivity and focusing simply on how they compete rather than what’s preceding it. “A lot of the time the team will worry about how they warm up, but we aren’t trying to win the warmup,” said Rowe. “They might think that ‘a bad warmup means a bad competition,’ but I tell them this is the time to make adjustments and figure it out for the competition.”
At the Pennsylvania final, MSU started its competition on floor with a strong event total of 49.425, and built on this momentum all the way through to beam. On an event that has previously given MSU some trouble in past regionals, the Spartans knew they had to go in with confidence to hit this event and punch their ticket to Texas. “Aggressive is the perfect word [to describe our huddle] before beam,” said Schulte. “We [knew we had to] get up there and be fierce, and have no fear. I said before beam that God didn’t give us the spirit of fear, so get up there, slam it, and the rest is history.”
This aggressive mindset has been something the Spartans have worked to grow this season. “We used to approach ending on beam differently,” said Rowe. “We used to get butterflies and get nervous … but now you have to know [ending on beam] is always something that can be thrown at you and you need to be able to handle it.”
Working on how the team approaches the competition from the first warm-up turn to the last competitive routine, how to keep the fire and attack the event they are on has made all the difference and has earned the Spartans its first appearance in 37 years to the national championships. “I am most excited to take the team to Texas,” expressed Rowe who has been with only individuals to nationals in the past. “It has always been great [with the individuals], but we are always wishing the team was [there]. They know they have more fuel in the tank, and I think they are going to surprise some people.”
Skyla Schulte, a senior for the Spartans who has previously qualified to nationals as an individual, but is now getting the opportunity to share this with the team echoed Rowe’s excitement about the whole team making it to nationals. “It’s a blessing to be able to be here,” shared Schulte “From our freshman year, this was always the goal. Being there on my own was pretty cool, but the team going was always the ultimate goal. We just trusted our training, trusted each other, and trusted God, and we allowed Him to work in our lives, and that is such a gift in itself.”
Michigan State will make its debut in Texas for the first time in almost four decades, and this milestone is just the beginning of the historic journey for the Spartans.
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Article by Julianna Roland
