The Austin gymnastics team put up its best team score it has ever achieved at the Class ‘A’ state meet, but it wasn’t enough as the Packers finished in fourth place out of eight teams at the University of Minnesota Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis Friday.

Austin earned a score of 148.3 points, which is two points better than it did last season when it finished in third place at state. Melrose won the meet with a 149.575, New Prague was second with a 149.05 and Detroit Lakes was third with a 148.45.

“If you simply look at finishing fourth, it doesn’t look that great,” Austin head coach Mark Raymond said. “The difference between first and fourth was less than a point and a half. We can find those points in a lot of places. It was a pretty good day, but it wasn’t a great day.”

The Packers started strong on the bars as they posted the second best score in the meet with a 37.250, but things went downhill on the beam. Maddie Mullenbach had a 9.4250 and Carolyn Hackel had an 8.375, but every other Packer had a fall on their routine as Austin totaled a 35.950 in the event.

“For the second year in a row, we had a bad beam routine,” Raymond said. “If one more hits, we move up to third. If two more hit, we move up to second. If three more hit, we probably move up to first. We design routines that score well, but unfortunately that means they are hard routines.”

Austin scored a 37.475 on the vault and a 37.625 on the floor.

Even though the Packers were edged out by Detroit Lakes for third, Raymond was happy to see that team at the state meet.

“I’m super excited for Detroit Lakes,” he said. “They’ve been behind Perham for the last five years as a top five team in the state and that’s awesome for them to get third.”

Austin will graduate one senior in Sela Fadness from this year’s team and the Packers, who have competed in four of the last five state meets, are hoping to get back to state again next season.

Raymond credited his team for working hard throughout the season.

“They’re a great team and a great group of girls. It’s too bad that I couldn’t have done a little more for them,” Raymond said. “Expectations have been elevated and this happened to be the year that four teams were over 148.”

Austin’s Sela Fadness, Abby Bickler, Maddie Mullenbach and Carolyn Hackel will compete in the Class ‘A’ state individual meet Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Sports Pavilion.

AUSTIN RESULTS

Vault: Carolyn Hackel (8.925); Jennifer Boyle (8.900); Abby Bickler (9.450); Maddie Mullenbach (9.450); Sela Fadness (9.650)

Bars: Hackel (8.75); Boyle (9.375); Mullenbach (9.475); Bickler (8.450); Fadness (9.650)

Beam: Hackel (8.375); Boyle (8.400); Bickler (8.850); Mullenbach (9.4250); Fadness (9.2500)

Floor: Boyle (8.450); Hackel (9.150); Mullenbach (9.225); Bickler (9.550); Fadness (9.700)