MINNEAPOLIS — The Packers ended their gymnastics season with one last quality outing when they finished in fifth place at the Class ‘A’ state meet at the University of Minnesota Sports Pavilion Friday.

Austin, which was ranked No. 5 coming into the meet, tallied a score of 142.025 as it finished 1.750 points behind fourth place Perham. Melrose won the meet with a score of 147.5.

“Obviously you’re not satisfied unless you get first,” said Austin freshman Carolyn Hackel, who scored a 9.2 on the floor, an 8.35 on the beam, a 7.7 on the bars and an 8.9 on the vault. “Coming in we were confident, but not overly confident and we kind of expected to be where we were. We just kind of hoped to be up a little higher.”

As they have all season, the Packers dominated the floor competition as they finished with the high-score in the meet with a 37.350. Sela Fadness had a 9.55 on the floor and Abby Bickler had a 9.500.

“I thought we had a pretty good day,” Austin head coach Mark Raymond said. “If you wanted to get a little greedy we could ask for a couple of beam routines back and we left a couple of points on the bars but I’m pretty happy with what we did.”

The Packers’ closed the day on a strong note as junior Abby Snater nailed her beam routine for a score of 9.2 on the team’s last event of the day. Snater had recently struggled on the beam as she had just an 8.45 at the section meet, but she was nearly flawless on Friday.

“I haven’t had the best year for beam so far,” Snater said. “I figured this will be the last thing I’m going to do all year, so I’m going to go all out and just hit it. I wasn’t nervous at all I just wanted to hit it.”

Raymond said Snater’s performance on Friday is what she’s capable of doing all of the time and Hackel said Snater’s beam was fun to watch.

“She just hit everything beautifully and it was an amazing job,” Hackel said. “She did everything exactly like she was supposed to. She helped us out a lot.”

The Packers were back in the state meet after taking fifth in 2010 and they looked to be right at home on the big stage.

“It was almost refreshing to be back here. The girls get so excited and it’s so great,” Snater said. “We were hoping for a better finish, but you’re going to have those first time jitters for the girls in their first time at state. But we’re definitely proud of where we are.”

Raymond said his team, which graduates just one senior in Marissa Bartels, has to focus on two areas in particular for next year — the beam and the bars.

He thinks the squad can make some even bigger strides if they clean up those routines.

“If we want to do a little better next year, we’re going to have to come in with a little bit better of a set,” he said. “We need to do more skills to get ready to compete at this level. We’ve got a really young team and if they work hard again this summer, we can move up a little bit.”

Hackel is already looking towards the offseason workouts the team will hold over the summer.

“We’re going to be in the gym a lot more this summer,” she said. “Last year we were kind of in and out, but this year we’ll be in there a lot.”

AUSTIN RESULTS

Floor: Sela Fadness (9.550); Abby Bickler (9.500); Carolyn Hackel (9.200); Rachel Quandt (9.200); Ila Anderson (8.800)

Beam: Abby Snater (9.20); Fadness (8.975); Hackel (8.350); Bickler (7.7); Cassidy Bawek (7.3)

Bars: Fadness (9.4); Bickler (8.575); Snater (8.25); Anderson (8.125); Hackel (7.7)

Vault: Fadness (9.375); Bickler (9.0); Hackel (8.9); Snater (8.8); Bawek (8.65)

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Melrose 147.5; 2. New Prague 145.25; 3. Big Lake 145.3; 4. Perham 143.775; 5. Austin 142.025; 6. Jackson County Central 138.275; 7. Breck School fifth, 138.125; 8. Rush City-Pine City-Hinkley-Finlayson 135.050