For the Blugold gymnastics team, there are a few scarce times when finishing second seems just fine.

Against strong conference competition, the Blugolds took second place out of five teams at the WIAC conference championships Friday night in La Crosse.

The Blugolds posted a team score of 181.55, finishing a distant second behind UW-La Crosse’s 186.70, a new WIAC championship meet record. The Eagles claimed its eighth consecutive WIAC championship crown in the process.

The Blugolds had individuals place second, third and fourth in the all-around competition. Leading the list was sophomore Lynn Morris, who took second place overall with a score of 37.275. She earned top-five finishes in the balance beam (with a score of 9.450), vault (9.475) and bars (9.100).

Junior Alison Eagles took third with a score of 36.425 and claimed her second consecutive conference championship in the vault with a score of 9.650.

Rounding out the list of top-four finishers was freshman Chelsea Romportl, who took fourth in the all-around competition with a score of 36.025.

Against defending national champion La Crosse, the Blugolds knew it would have taken an incredible effort to finish first.

“As a team we did really well,” Morris said. “We went four-for-four, and everybody gave 110 percent, which is our motto this year, and nobody held back.”

Morris made it apparent which event the Blugolds’ performed the best on, and the scores did not lie.

“Definitely vault. Everybody stuck their landings,” she said.

The team will have its work cut out for them Thursday when it travels back to Mitchell Hall to face La Crosse.

“We just need to work on the small stuff, like eliminating the small deductions,” sophomore Chelsey Brickweg said. “The small things, which we fix, will add up later on.”