The Packer gymnastics team will be back to a familiar place Friday — the Class A state gymnastics meet. But Austin is coming to the meet with very unfamiliar circumstances.

The Packers, who will be competing in their fourth straight state meet and their fifth in the last six years, are short a few of their key gymnasts who carried them to all of those previous state runs. Sela Fadness, a two-time all-around state champ, is graduated and competing for the Hamline University gymnastics team, and seniors Abby Bickler and Carolyn Hackel may both be out of the lineup with injuries when the team competes at the University of Minnesota Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis 11 a.m. Friday.

Hackel may be able to compete in some events, depending on how fast she heals, but her status is uncertain at this time.

Still, the Packers have enough depth and talent on their squad to have pretty lofty hopes. Maddie Mullenbach, Jennifer Boyle, are both competing in Saturday’s individual all-around meet at 11 a.m. and Paige Raymond has a state qualifying beam routine for individual meet. The team has also received solid performances from Rachel Quandt, Logan Tischer and Sam Sheldon in the past few meets.

Austin head coach Alex Bade said that Melrose and Detroit Lakes are the two clear favorites and everyone else in the meet will be fighting for third place.

“I think that third spot is kind of up for grabs. Detroit Lakes and Melrose have kind of set themselves apart from the rest of the Class A this season,” Bade said. “They’ll be the two to beat and I’d be more than happy if we could finish third.”

Austin’s best finish in state was in 2013, when it took third place and the Packers put up their best score ever at state when they took fourth with a 148.3 last season. This year, the Packers are coming off of a score of 143.175 at the Section 1A meet this past Saturday.

The Packers are treating this week like any other week and Bade feels no need top put any added pressure on his squad.

“We’re just practicing how we always practice,” he said. “When it comes meet day, we’re going to throw the routines we practiced. You don’t really have to add any pressure to yourself just because it’s a big day. We’ve had big days before, just not quite as big.”

Bade used to be an assistant coach with Melrose, which won the Class A state title last season, and is a perennial power in Class A gymnastics. He said he’s looking forward to coaching against a team he knows pretty well.

“It’s always fun to come in and compete against them,” Bade said. “You always want to beat your friends and when you compete against your friends it’s a lot more fun than competing against strangers. I wish them all of the luck in the world and hopefully we can beat them when it comes down to it.”

In the state individual meet, Mullenbach, a sophomore, will have her sights set high. She took fourth place in the all-around as an eighth grader, and she took fifth in the all-around last season — finishing behind her teammates Bickler and Fadness.

“I think she has a pretty good chance,” Bade said of Mullenbach. “There’s going to be a lot of good teams and good gymnasts there. I don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re going to aim high, but it depends on the day, who hits and who doesn’t.”