It's no secret now: New Prague wins Class 2A gymnastics title

Ella Barsness knew, but she wasn't letting on.

Gymnastics has a long tradition of keeping the final results secret until they are announced. But Barsness, one of New Prague's senior tri-captains, couldn't resist peeking.

"I knew what the scores were because I looked. I do every time. So I pranked them and made them think we were going to get fourth," Barsness said mischieviously.

The announcements commenced. When New Prague wasn't called for fourth place, suspicions were raised. "I was like, 'OK, we placed,' " fellow captain Sam Solheid said. "And then they called third, and then second. And I looked at Ella and she was like, 'I fooled you!' "

New Prague slipped past St. Cloud by a slim .125 of a point, 146.400 to 146.275 to win Class 2A, the fifth gymnastics team championship in school history on Friday at Roy Wilkins Auditorium.

The Trojans won the Class 2A title in 1984 and the Class 1A crown in 2001, 2003 and 2013.

"As seniors, this means the world," tri-captain Jadyn Klein said. "I was so sad when she convinced us we'd lost. It was a high and a low in about 10 minutes."

"Somewhere around midseason, we had several of our top varsity girls that had to step back and take a break due to injuries," coach Darrell Christenson said. "But we had other girls step up and we were able to stay consistent."

Said Solheid: "It's really nice to know that if you can't go out there, someone else on our team can."

New Prague came in confident after hitting a season-high team score of 147.700 in its section meet. The Trojans started the meet on the most nerve-racking apparatus, the balance beam, and scored well, setting the tone for the rest of the meet. "We were happy, in a great mood. We walked away in great spirits," Christenson said.

"That's when we thought, 'OK, we're going to have a good day,' " Solheim said.

Klein concurred: "It pretty much set the mood for the whole meet."