POULSBO — The legendary Olympic athlete Steve Prefontaine once said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

No doubt the famous phrase holds true for the North Kitsap gymnastics team.

Last Tuesday, the Vikes were poised to compete against league rivals Port Angeles. But soon news arrived that two of the Roughriders’ gymnasts were not eligible. And North took advantage early on.

Kai Marrow, Jessica Lingberg and Jenne Jones led the way for NK, placing either first, second, or third in every event, as the Vikings defeated PA 154.3 to 140.55.

For Vikings’ Coach Kris Goodfellow, hard work combined with talented athletes has paid off — especially against two teams with a known history competing against each other.

“It’s a weird rivalry,” Goodfellow said. “For years, North Kitsap has been the underdogs. Now, wherever we go, we can be victorious.”

Goodfellow said he was also pleased that the meet’s overall best scorer — Lingberg of Bremerton — could have been taken out of the Vikings’ final score and North still would have won the meet.

For Lingberg, the year has provided her with her first opportunity to score points as a Viking, though she hails from BHS. Last year, she only competed individually.

“It’s so much more fun this year competing with the team,” Lingberg said. “I’m glad to help score points for the team.”

A theme this year on the team has been unity: finding ways to work well under pressure.

“As a team we didn’t fall apart,” said Jones, who placed third in every event at the meet. “We did what we do in practice every day.”

The meet also marked a return to the bars for Jones, who has not been able to compete in the event since last year, due to injuries.

“I think we did awesome,” said Marrow, who scored first on the bars and beam events. “We beat our rivals by a lot and everything went really well.”