Terrific turns and solid swings highlighted the friendly competition of the Federal Way School District athletes participating in the All-City High School Gymnastic meet held at Todd Beamer High School on Wednesday, Jan. 25.
While setting a school points record, Thomas Jefferson edged out Todd Beamer 176.5 - 175.5 to capture this year's team crown. Decatur (160.35) and Federal Way (146.8) also had reasons to be upbeat about the proceedings of the night in front of a packed crowd. TJ also claimed the top regular season spot of the SPSL North Division.
Jefferson and Beamer are elite Class 4A teams with enough returning talent to challenge for state team honors. The Titans finished third at last season's state meet with the Raiders in a close fourth. Getting to state will be much tougher because the West Central District Class 4A has only one team allocation to state this season.
The Raiders outscored the Titans on the beam (44.35 - 43.50) and the floor (48.8 - 47.7) while the host team held sway on the vault (44.10 to 43.45) and the bars (40.2 - 39.9).
After returning to school from the snowy and icy weather debacle for only two days before this meet, TJ head coach Debbie Hunter was well satisfied with the outcome as all the squads looked forward to the sub-district competition at Mount Rainier High School on Saturday, Feb. 4.
"It's good to get this out of the way," she said. "There were solid performances all around. Now, the girls just need to show the confidence when they do the routines. The floors were solid. We're still adjusting, but there were no letdowns."
Madi Kellar paced the Raider individual scorers with a score of 37.75 to tie Titan performer Sam West for the all-around crown.
Kellar captured outright first places on the uneven parallel bars (9.3), the balance beam (9.4) and the floor exercise (9.95) to pace her performances. In addition, she placed fourth at 9.1 on the vault.
"My highlight tonight was the bars," Kellar stated. "I changed my mount to jump straight up and added new bar chains to my routine. I'm still thinking about adding more to the other events."
Also posting top 10 all-around scores for TJ were Monica and Shelby Church. Monica claimed second place on the vault (9.3) and a strong second on the floor (9.90) as well as a fifth place total of 8.3 on bars as her featured events en route to her fourth place all-around total of 36.05.
Shelby finished just behind her sister in a fifth place all-around of 35.8. Her best placings were fourth on the beam (9.0) and the bars (8.5).
In individual top five routines, Bri Adam balanced for an 8.9 fifth on the beam and Kelsey Barrett took a 9.8 fifth on the floor.
For Todd Beamer, West flew to a 9.5 top spot on the vault while rotating to a second place 9.1 on the bars. Staying consistent, West stayed upright for a 9.3 second spot on the beam and completed her total in a 9.85 third place tie with teammate Leah Freeborn on the floor.
"I'm really happy with this," she said. "I haven't practiced, but now, I'm ready for sub-district."
Titan head coach Gina Foster feels her team will be ready, as well.
"This meet was fun and exciting," she said. "They did great. They're working their way well up to the next levels."
Leah Freeborn worked her way to a third-place 36.7 on the all-arounds for Beamer. Besides her tie with West on the floor exercise, Freeborn earned third places on vault (9.2) and the bars (8.85) in top five spots.
Kasey Johnson took sixth in the all-arounds with 34.35.scored an 8.9 fifth on beam as her top individual event.
Decatur performed positively in the process of reaching a major goal.
Coming in with a 10th-place all-around score of 33.1 was Blayne Zimmerman.
"Our girls are improving and our scores are up," Gator head coach Patty Braun said. "We made our goal of getting a 160 team score. Allison Sherwin, Ana Paradee, Victoria Braun and senior Tori Zellerhoff did well. One of our normal all-arounds Karissa Kolman injured her elbow and just returned to the gym. Right now, she is only doing beam."
Sherwin scored 33.65 to grab seventh in all-arounds. Sherwin's best individual ranking was a seventh place score of 8.7 on beam.
"My new routines on bars went well and the meet was great," she said.
Gator gymnast Shawntel Bali climbed to ninth in all-around competition with a score of 33.15. Bali captured a 9.2 third on the balance beam.
Federal Way completed a regular season full of enjoyment, but speckled with injuries.
"It's been a tough season," admitted Eagle head coach Jamie Tough. "We have a lot of new girls and they're fun to work with. We're glad to be able to compete. Even during the meet, we had some girls come down with stomach problems. Our top returner, Valarie Pham, sprained her back and didn't compete until after Christmas break. The girls are really great to coach. We have a freshman named Tia Thomas who's incredibly coachable and get's nines on the floor. She understands instructions and just does it."
Pham competed on all the events and led Federal Way in the all-arounds, placing eighth at 33.4. Pham captured a seventh place on the bars at 7.7.
"This was my third meet and I competed on everything," said Pham. "My back was really good until the last event, the vault. I tweaked the back a little, but it will be OK. I'll rest and then do all the events at sub-district."
Hall of Fame Presentations.
Pre-meet ceremonies featured the induction of the fourth Federal Way School District Hall of Fame Class.
Among the new members were former long-time Federal Way gymnastics coach Bev McIrvin and current long-time Jefferson gymnastics coach Debbie Hunter. McIrvin was also one of the judges for the All-City Meet
McIrvin coached gymnastics at Federal Way High School for 30 years and developed the program while building a complete gymnastics facility. Her teams won six South Puget Sound League championships and finished third in the state four times. McIrvin also coached two state champions. In 1998, McIrvin was selected as Washington state's gymnastic coach of the year and inducted into the Washington State Gymnastic Hall of Fame.
Hunter coached at Mount Rainier for one year before beginning her Thomas Jefferson gymnastics coaching career. Now in her 35th season, Hunter is the longest serving, single sport head coach in district history. Her last two teams finished third and fourth at the state meet. She is also going into her 26th year as the Raider dance team coach.
Also honored were Jim Dillon (Jefferson), Doug Patrick (Federal Way) and Steve "Mr. Illahee" McCully.
