Trojan gymnasts 2nd at State

New Prague High School's gymnastics team was hoping to get off to a good start in the State Class A team competition Friday.

But with two falls, New Prague scored 35.8 points, spotting more than a point to top-ranked Perham, which opened the meet by tying New Prague's three-year-old record on the uneven bars with a 37.125. As it turned out, even a good start was probably not enough to catch the defending state champion Yellowjackets, which also broke six-year-old records on the balance beam as they set a new record with 150.4 points.

New Prague recovered from its slow start with good scores on the remaining three events and placed second, with 146.525. Big Lake was a distant third, at 142.425. Rounding out the field were Mound-Westonka (141.3), Mahtomedi (141.025), Melrose (139.225), Martin County West (135.525) and Blue Earth (130.55).

This was the seventh straight year the Trojans had qualified for state. They have two first place finishes and five second place finishes during that span.

Perham hot

Over the last three years, gymnastics coaches had seen Perham post gaudy numbers in the regular season and then score lower at the state meet, leading to suspicions that the scores in the northern part of the state might be inflated. That was definitely not the case this year, as the young Yellowjackets (they have only one senior and one junior on their roster) blew through the competition, topping 37 points in each of the four events. Only one team, New Prague, scored a 37 in any event, with a 37.425 on the vault, which coach Matt Shetka said is a school record.

We started on the beam