When the Southern Regional and Barnegat high school gymnastics teams square off in their annual meeting, the competition often is a friendly one. Still, the rivalry matters, and the more-established Rams always seem to have a leg up on the Bengals. However, with Barnegat heading into their Oct. 17 matchup with an undefeated record and Southern coming off its best team performance of the season, this year’s battle was expected to be one of titans.

“Barnegat has really good girls this year, and our key was to not get distracted by how their girls were doing,” said…