Titan Gymnast Taking Her Turn At Top

After waiting her turn, Kalie Cossette has become the focus of University High’s dominant Greater Spokane League gymnastics team.

But the Titans are not just a one-woman show.

Depth is the reason that tonight the Titans seek a 25th straight quad-dual victory, an unbeaten GSL season and a fourth straight league championship.

Last year, however, Cossette chased all-around champion and teammate Kim Meyers, currently a Titan assistant coach.

“That was the way it should have been,” said Cossette. “It got so I just expected it to be my goal to be second all-around.”

This year Cossette has set her sights higher. She’s won two all-around championships in five league meets, finished second twice and third once.

The Titan senior also has nine individual event wins out of 13 top-three finishes.

Last weekend, at the Sehome Invitational, which features the state’s best prep gymnasts, she was third all-around.

“I was a little surprised; there were a lot of good girls over there,” said Cossette. “It was nice to come out that close to the top.”

Much of what has made Cossette stand out has been the competition within the Titan team. U-Hi’s top four gymnasts, including juniors Tara Hulbert, Coleen Pierce and Lindsay Brandle, have gymnastic club backgrounds.

This year Hulbert and Pierce have each won all-around championships at a GSL meet.

Hulbert has 15 event top-three finishes, including five firsts and seven seconds. Pierce has 13 top-three places, including four firsts and seconds. She was fifth overall at Sehome.

Nursing tender knees, Brandle waited until Sehome to compete all-around and finished ninth among 150 contestants.

“What better than to lose allaround than to your own teammate,” said Titan coach Stacey Heaton. “They have a healthy, positive competition with each other.”

Cossette’s personal goals are modest.

“I just want to do the best I can do - like first staying on the beam,” she said.

If University has had a downfall this year, it has been that event.

A level 8 Spokane Elite club gymnast, after seven years of competition, Cossette said she realized that gymnastics wasn’t her whole life.

At first unaware of the competitive level in high school, she turned out and found she liked it.

“It ended up meaning more than I thought it would,” she said.

University last year finished fourth at state and Cossette placed ninth in floor exercise. This year she would like the Titans to improve as a team and individually.

She knows that in gymnastics, however, nothing can be taken for granted.

“It just depends upon if you hit on that day,” said Cossette.

“I’m just trying to make it that far again. You don’t want to have expectations and be disappointed if you don’t.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo