CV Soph Leads Way
Things went exactly as they have been all season for April Mims on Friday night.
Central Valley’s sophomore gymnast was nervous.
And she won an all-around competition.
Mims scored 36.4 points for top honors in the District 8 4A meet at North Central and Greater Spokane League champion CV easily won the team competition with a season-best 175.15 points.
Runner-up Ferris scored 167.3.
The top four teams advance to next Saturday’s 1 p.m. Region IV meet at CV with the Big Nine Conference. Shadle Park is the district’s third-place team after just missing a trip to regionals last season and University earned the fourth spot.
Also advancing are the top three all-around competitors not on one of those teams, and the top seven individuals in each event from non-qualifying teams.
Mims won the bars and vault and NC junior Amber Baines performed her best routine of the season on the floor exercise for a winning score of 9.25 to finish second in the all-around with a 35.8.
On beam, probably her best event, Mims scored an uncharacteristically low 8.75 for fourth place. But she was happy with her efforts considering she’s been fighting a cold and is taking antibiotics.
But the medication failed to cure her butterflies, and that’s fine with Mims.
“I’m always nervous and I do better when I’m nervous. I feel if I’m too relaxed I won’t be paying attention as much to my routines and what I need to do.”
CV’s success has been a long time coming. The fourth-ranked Bears have been close to being the league’s top team many times in recent seasons. They lost to ‘99 league champion Ferris by five-hundredths of a point last season in the league-opener that helped determine the GSL title.
“I’m so happy for my seniors,” said coach Kim Brunelle. “They have been with me in so many close meets. It’s really hard to be No. 2, and I’ve been No. 2 way more than I’ve been No. 1.”
She was especially proud of senior Corinne Gannon on Friday. Gannon scored a 9.05 to win the balance beam.
Baines’ winning floor routine followed a frustrating 8.45 on the beam, in which she fell twice. Her previous best of the season on floor had been a 9.1.
She said it wasn’t hard to regroup after the beam.
“It’s a meet,” said Baines, who will be joined at regionals by four teammates who qualified in individual events. “I was only halfway through, so I couldn’t get too bummed.”