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Sports

Northfield Gymnasts Hit 150, Defend State Crown

The Raiders record a season-best score of 150.4 to retain the Class AA Title by just three-tenths of a point over Roseville.

All season long, the Northfield gymnastics team has been in search of its goal score of 150—on Friday night in the state Class AA championship meet, the Raiders got it when they needed it the most.

In scoring a 150.4 on the floor of the University of Minnesota Sports Pavilion, Northfield edged runner-up Roseville by just three-tenths of a point to claim its second-straight state title.

"Scoring a 150 was our goal all year long and we got it at state," gymnast Sveta Mason said. "We competed so much harder this year and if anything, this (state title) is more exciting than last year."

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While Park of Cottage Grove, the second-ranked team in Class AA heading into the meet, brought much of the night's excitement with a several-hundred strong fan section that tried to single-handedly keep their team in it, the competition whittled down to a battle between the top-ranked maroon-and-gold Raiders and the fourth-ranked black-and-silver Raiders.

"I thought it'd be real close right up to the end," Raiders co-head coach Melissa Bernhard said. "This year, lots of teams had the potential to win it. Everybody comes on real strong at the end of the year and Roseville has an excellent team."

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As the results came rolling in, the Raiders held a slim early advantage despite Northfield posting scores of 38.3 on vault to open the competition and a 37.55 on uneven bars.

Tension built as the two teams, competing in the same rotation, moved on to their third round of competition as Northfield posted its lowest score of the evening—a 36.525 on the balance beam—to extend Roseville's edge to 113.475-112.375 with just one event to go.

With Roseville just minutes away from regaining the championship it lost after Northfield ended its four-year Class AA championship run last spring, Bernhard's squad needed its most clutch performance of the year to have any chance of retaining the title.

And that's exactly what happened.

As Roseville put up a 36.625 on the beam, Northfield put up a 38.025 on floor to surge into first place. All that was needed to be done was the math.

"I had some of our parents saying that they thought Roseville had us by two-tenths of a point, then Roseville was telling us that we had them by a few tenths," Bernhard said.

Both teams sat together during the awards ceremony as the places were ticked off until all that were left were the two Raiders squads ...

... and then there was one. Northfield.

As Roseville was called out as the second-place finisher, Northfield gymnasts, coaches and fans swelled into elation—screaming, hugging, celebrating and even crying.

"We had no idea whether we were going to win or not," Mason said. "It was very exciting."

After being congratulated by the runners-up, Northfield team members took to the medal stand and were awarded the championship trophy once again as the Raiders have now won two state titles in three tournament trips.

And it took attaining the elusive score of 150 to do so.

"At first, it was an outward verbalized goal," Bernhard said. "Then, the girls really took it to heart.

"We came up here with nothing to lose. We came here to perform our best and that is what we did."

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