Free State senior Grace Bartle cries after her floor exercise routine Saturday at Kansas high school state gymnastics competition at Shawnee Mission West. Pictured from left is Free State junior Callie Hicks, Lawrence High freshman Eliana Seidner, Bartle, and assistant coach Michelle Seidner.

Overland Park ? People say the toughest thing to do in sports is to defend a championship. Free State High’s gymnasts learned of the difficulties during the regular season, when they just coudn’t find a way to beat Olathe East.

But when it mattered most and the lights shined the brightest, the Firebirds were back in a familiar spot, standing in the middle of the medal podium at the state meet.

The Firebirds won their second straight state championship, and picked up their third title in four years on Saturday at Shawnee Mission West High. After edging the Hawks, 107.125-106.65, Free State became the first school to repeat as state champion since Olathe East in 2007-08.

“It’s pretty awesome, especially because we’ve worked on it all year,” senior Carrie Howland said. “To come into this meet and all work together, because everyone contributed — Haley (Johnson) on beam, Grace (Bartle) on floor, with those amazing scores. Just to come together and get it all our senior year is awesome.”

Over the past two weeks, the Firebirds worked furiously to clean up their routines and add difficult skills in practice. It paid off, as junior Callie Hicks and Bartle turned in top-five scores in the vault, and everybody had solid routines on the uneven bars, highlighted by Hicks scoring a 9.02 to finish in fourth place.

Then, Johnson helped her teammates out by turning in a sixth-place score of 9.075 on the balance beam, which was especially appreciated after Howland and Bartle fell from the beam.

“Haley really surprised me,” Bartle said. “She had a stellar meet, honestly. She did her giants (on the bars) and that was probably one of the best parts of the meet. She put up the best beam score ever, like we really needed that on beam, definitely.”

Johnson, who took ninth all-around, had her teammates jumping up and down throughout her routines, as she perfected her new and more difficult skills.

“I was focused and determined to have the best meet I could for myself as a senior and for the team, as all of us are mainly seniors,” Johnson said. “I scored better on beam so that was a relief, but once I got my giants, that was the first time that I’ve (done) it in my high school career, so ending with giants was a phenomenal feeling.”

As the Firebirds noticed they had a lead heading into the floor routine — their last event — they knew a state title was in their grasp with solid routines. Johnson turned in a score of 8.75, which Howland topped with a 9.075 (tying for sixth place), before Bartle highlighted her day with a score of 9.45 to win her second state title in a row in the floor exercise.

“I’m really, really happy with how I did on vault, bars and floor,” said Bartle, who also took fifth all-around. “Beam I’m not too happy about but it’s beam, it’s OK. I’m so happy about floor because that’s my event, and after I came off, I was just in tears. It was really cool ending on it.”

The three seniors — Bartle, Howland and Johnson — all had plenty of highlights throughout the meet, and were happy to end their high school careers on the highest note that they could.

How much have the seniors meant to the Free State gymnastics program?

“You’re going to make me cry. I haven’t cried yet all day,” FSHS and Lawrence High coach Brooke Kissinger said. “They know how to get it done and they know how to make the team motivated and they know how to hit solid routines. This was awesome.”

Lawrence didn’t qualify as a team, but junior Ashley Ammann highlighted the Lions’ day by taking eighth place in the floor exercise. Sophomore Jordyn Leon also added a top-20 finish on the bars and senior Heather Wisbey tied for 30th on the beam.

“Ashley did so well on the floor, and Jordyn added a new skill to her bar routine,” Kissinger said. “It was awesome, everybody was able to hit their skills they’ve been practicing these last two weeks. I was really satisfied with Lawrence High and Free State.”