Gunnar Sather wanted to celebrate with his friends last year when the Mahtomedi boys hockey team won the Class A state championship.

That’s exactly what he did. That barrier in front of him be damned.

As the Zephyrs raced over to their student section, officially state champions after a game-winner from Jonny Grove in double overtime against Warroad, Sather sprung into action. Literally. He went viral on social media after jumping the glass at Xcel Energy Center to join in the celebration on the ice.

Unfortunately for Sather, that decision ended up having lasting effects. The punishments included a two-year ban from the Xcel Energy Center, an eight-game suspension from baseball and a two-game suspension from football. Additionally, the Minnesota State High School League continued to make an example of Sather this year, barring him from attending section tournaments and state tournaments.

“It’s unfortunate that he has the label on him that he does,” Mahtomedi boys hockey coach Jeff Poeschl said this week. “He is a real character young man.”

His classmates agree, and they got creative this week at the state boys hockey tournament as a way to show their support. The Mahtomedi student section showed up for the quarterfinal matchup wearing shirts with the words “FREE GUNNAR” displayed prominently on the front. There’s also a drawing capturing the iconic moment when Sather jumped the glass.

“It’s awesome,” Mahtomedi goaltender Charlie Brandt said. “He was like the biggest fan ever. Now he can’t come to any of our games. They’re showing support for him and I think it’s great.”

It started as an idea from a group of Sather’s friends, including Ben Mitchell, who served as the unofficial spokesperson for the movement. He said they came up with the design last week and enlisted the help of an art teacher to help screenprint the shirts in advance of the state tournament.

“We thought maybe 20 or 30 people might buy the shirts and we showed up and it was completely packed,” Mitchell said. “We had no idea it was going to blow up.”

Mitchell estimated they have sold more than 300 shirts this week, adding that the plan is to donate the proceeds to charity to make sure something good comes out of this situation.

“It scared us a little bit how much it blew up because we don’t want him getting in any more trouble,” Mitchell said. “He stayed out of it and let us do our thing because he doesn’t want to give them any more reason to punish him.”

Asked for his opinion, Mitchell expressed frustration with how everything has been handled by the Minnesota State High School League.

“He’s not a bad kid,” Mitchell said. “It’s ridiculous they decided to make an example out of him and push all the punishments that they could on him. There was nothing malicious about his idea to jump the glass. They have made this way, way bigger than it needed to be.”

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FORT MYERS, Fla. — The chances of St. Paul’s Louie Varland making the Twins’ Opening Day major league roster rest largely on the health of Anthony DeSclafani’s right elbow.

That elbow, DeSclafani said just minutes after finishing a 35-pitch bullpen session on Friday at Hammond Stadium, is once again feeling good.

Varland, who is unlikely to break camp with the Twins unless there is an injury among Minnesota’s projected starting five in the rotation, started and pitched three scoreless innings in the Twins’ 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Meanwhile, about 100 miles south at the team’s complex, DeSclafani was back testing out his elbow.

The veteran DeSclafani was briefly shutdown after experiencing some soreness in his elbow following a live batting practice session earlier this spring. Friday marked his second bullpen and third time off the slope — he threw a 10-pitch touch-and-feel session — and he walked away pleased by how he felt.

“The training staff has done a good job of just helping me get back to feeling good,” he said.

The Twins will map out a plan for DeSclafani soon and assess how he’s feeling on Saturday as they plot his path forward. Saturday is particularly important considering the first time he felt soreness wasn’t during the live batting practice but the day after, he said.

“It was more of that night/the next day soreness that was kind of what put everything on hold,” DeSclafani said. “I was like ‘Alright, I need a couple days.’ I think that’s always — that’s how it’s going to be when you’re coming back from injuries or stuff like that.”

As for how much time he thinks he needs to get ready for the reason — the season begins on March 28 but he wouldn’t be needed until early April — the right-hander said he still thinks he has plenty of time to build up and get into game action.

“First and foremost, it’s going to be health over ramping up too quickly,” he said. “I’m putting my health first. … I still think I have plenty of time to ramp up to be ready for whenever they need me.”

Prospect game on tap

The Twins’ stars of tomorrow will be on display next week, with most of the organization’s top prospects set to participate in MLB’s first Spring Breakout.

The prospect showcase, which will be available for fans to stream for free on MLB’s website, will take place on March 16 with the Twins’ top young players facing off against the top prospects in the Tampa Bay Rays’ system.

Minnesota’s Walker Jenkins, Brooks Lee Emmanuel Rodriguez, Gabriel Gonzalez — acquired in the Jorge Polanco deal — and pitcher David Festa are among those on the roster announced by the Twins on Thursday. Nine of the Twins’ top-10 prospects, per MLB Pipeline, are set to play in the game.

Briefly

Second baseman Edouard Julien left Friday’s game early after being hit by a pitch. … Jose Miranda played the field on Friday in Bradenton for the first time since undergoing offseason shoulder surgery. He had served as the team’s designated hitter in his previous spring training games. Miranda, who is likely to begin the season at Triple-A, is expected to see most of his action in the field at first base.

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GREEN BAY, Wis. — The bounce, break or big play that Clear Lake needed just never materialized.

Lena made just enough plays down the stretch for a 53-48 victory over the Warriors in the Division 5 semifinals of the Wisconsin girls state high school basketball tournament Friday.

Nora Eggert nailed a 3-pointer from the right side and Ellie Cress hit a pair of free throws to pull Clear Lake within 52-48 with 27.8 seconds left.

Lena left the door open by missing 3 of 4 free throws in the final 25 seconds, but the Warriors turned it over on their final two hurried possessions.

“They hit timely shots when they needed to, especially in that first half,” Clear Lake coach Chad Eggert said. “And then we couldn’t quite get over that hump the second half. We’d get close, they’d make another big bucket, or get out on us and get an easy transition bucket. We just couldn’t quite get there.”

Nora Eggert, the coach’s daughter, finished her high school career with 12 points, including three 3-pointers, but was the only Warrior in double figures. Brenna Peterson had a team-high 10 rebounds.

Third-seeded Clear Lake (26-4) shot just 28.6%, making 12 of 42 field goal attempts. The Warriors also turned it over 24 times, which Lena converted into 20 points.

Eva Brooks had 23 points and 14 boards for Lena, which shot 42.2%. Madi Thomson added 12 points and 11 rebounds. The Wildcats hung on despite making just 9 of 26 free throws, all in the second half.

“Even though we were maybe only five or six (down), and maybe it got to nine or so, we were the ones that seemed like we had to battle the whole game,” Chad Eggert said. “But give credit to Lena. They’re good. They’re down here, too, for a reason.”

The second-seeded Wildcats (28-2) advanced to Saturday’s title game against fourth-seeded Albany/Monticello (26-3), which upset top-ranked Argyle/Pecatonica 37-31 in the opening semifinal.

Clear Lake went almost four minutes without a field goal midway through the second half but managed to make it one-possession game when Shelby Meyer scored down low to trim the deficit to 35-32.

Clear Lake had several chances to cut into the lead but missed the front end of a bonus and its next two field-goal attempts. Thomson then went the other way with a turnover for a three-point play to make it 38-32.

The Warriors missed consecutive 3-pointers and Thomson scored on a drive to put Lena up 40-32 with 6:46 remaining.

Kali Fischer hit a pair of free throws — Lena’s first of the game — to give the Wildcats a 29-22 lead. Clear Lake scored its next four points from the line and Eggert tied it with a 3-pointer.

The Warriors hit four of their first nine shots, including 2 of 5 from beyond the arc, but also turned it over seven times over that span.

Meyer snapped a scoreless streak of almost 3 minutes with a layup to bring Clear Lake even at 20-20 with 1:24 left in the first half, but Lena scored the final five points before the break.

“I’m super proud of our team and just getting to the state tournament was super fun,” Nora Eggert said. “I’m so proud of all of us. We created really close bonds this year, which was really fun. We fought hard but just couldn’t do it. But I’m proud to make it here.”

By MATT O’BRIEN and HALELUYA HADERO (AP Business Writers)

OpenAI is reinstating CEO Sam Altman to its board of directors and said it has “full confidence” in his leadership after an outside investigation into the turmoil that led the company to abruptly fire and rehire him in November.

OpenAI said the investigation by the law firm WilmerHale concluded that Altman’s ouster was a “consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust” between Altman and the prior board.

The ChatGPT maker also said it has added three women to its board of directors: Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellman, a former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, a former Sony general counsel; and Instacart CEO Fidji Simo.

The actions are a way for the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company to show investors and customers that it is trying to move past the internal conflicts that nearly destroyed it last year and made global headlines.

For more than three months, OpenAI said little about what led its then-board of directors to fire Altman on Nov. 17. An announcement that day said Altman was “not consistently candid in his communications” in a way that hindered the board’s ability to exercise its responsibilities. He also was kicked off the board, along with its chairman, Greg Brockman, who responded by quitting his job as the company’s president.

Much of OpenAI’s conflicts are rooted in its unusual governance structure. Founded as a nonprofit with a mission to safely build futuristic AI that helps humanity, it is now a fast-growing big business still controlled by a nonprofit board bound to its original mission.

The investigation found the prior board acted within its discretion. But it also determined that Altman’s “conduct did not mandate removal,” OpenAI said.

Days after his surprise ouster, Altman and his supporters — with backing from most of OpenAI’s workforce and close business partner Microsoft — helped orchestrate a comeback that brought Altman and Brockman back to their executive roles and forced out board members Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner and Ilya Sutskever, though the latter kept his job as chief scientist.

Altman and Brockman did not regain their board seats at that time. But an “initial” new board of three men was formed, led by former Salesforce and Facebook executive Bret Taylor, who also chaired Twitter’s board before Elon Musk took over the platform. The others were former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, the only member of the previous board to stay on.

(Both Quora and Taylor’s new startup, Sierra, operate their own AI chatbots that rely in part on OpenAI technology.)

OpenAI had retained the law firm WilmerHale to investigate the events that led to Altman’s ouster. During the probe, OpenAI said WilmerHale conducted dozens of interviews with the company’s prior board, current executives, advisers and other witnesses. The company also said the law firm reviewed thousands of documents and other corporate actions.

The company still has other troubles to contend with, including a lawsuit filed by billionaire Elon Musk, who helped bankroll the early years of OpenAI and was a co-chair of its board after its 2015 founding. Musk alleges that the company is betraying its founding mission in pursuit of profits.

Legal experts have expressed doubt about whether Musk’s arguments, centered around an alleged breach of contract, will hold up in court.

But it has already forced open the company’s internal conflicts about its unusual governance structure, how “open” it should be about its research and how to pursue what’s known as artificial general intelligence, or AI systems that can perform just as well as — or even better than — humans in a wide variety of tasks.

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The AP has signed a deal with OpenAI for it to access its news archive.