CV Gymnasts Doing Somersaults Over Regional Win, Trip To State

Gymnastics has always been fun for Corinne Gannon “I love gymnastics,” the Central Valley senior said.

But nothing has compared to the fun she’s had this season.

The Bears won the Greater Spokane League title, they won districts and last weekend they won regionals. CV will be the region’s top entry into the State 4A meet Friday and Saturday in the Tacoma Dome. And the Bears could challenge for the title.

“This is so exciting,” said Gannon, the district balance beam champion. “It’s so cool all of us can go together as a team. Especially my senior year. I’ve had Mrs. (Kim) Brunelle as my coach since seventh grade.”

CV sophomore April Mims, the district and regional all-around champion, wasn’t around during recent seasons when the Bears have been close to qualifying for state as a team.

She’s just happy to be a part of it this season. Mims also does club gymnastics at Spokane Elite Gymnastics and says the team aspect is why she decided to compete for the school team.

“I’m happy we’re finally not right behind,” Mims said. “We have so much talent on the team and this was our year to show everybody what we had.”

Mims credited the seniors who have been patient on the way to becoming the league’s top team. They are Gannon, Emily Roberts, Lindsay Zacher and Amy Nickerson.

“We’ve all come from good backgrounds of gymnastics,” said Roberts, third in the regional allaround competition. “Once you have the background, it’s just a matter of developing that.”

The other team members headed to state are: Melissa Alderman, Theresa Gorka, Jenny Hodgson, Annie Hussey, Cassie Mandarino, Karlee Poirier, Amy Snyder, Lacey Varney and Alyssa Wentz.

Poirier, a junior, has been nursing a hurt leg and only competed in bars at regionals. She might add a couple of events at state, Brunelle said.

Saturday was also a good day at regionals for University.

The Titans weren’t considered one of the favorites coming into the meet but they were in second place going into the final rotation.

U-Hi finished third and missed qualifying for state as a team. But there were plenty of reasons to be pleased.

“We did 10 times better than we expected,” said junior Alisa Brandle. “We didn’t expect to be a team contender. (Coach) Stacey (Heaton) came in and said `Do it for yourself, do it for your team and do it for your school,’ and we hit.

“As far as we came and as good as we did, it was awesome.”

Brandle is one of five Titans to qualify for state. She will compete on the balance beam, floor exercise and vault.

Marci Hulbert is another three-event entry. She will do the uneven bars, floor and vault. Hulbert won the vault at regionals with a 9.1. Meagan Pierce will compete on beam, Dani Plante on bars and Kelly Roberts on vault.

Heaton was impressed with her team’s showing.

“They dangled a carrot in front of our nose all the way til the end,” she said. “I’m proud of the girls. They showed that anything can happen in the game of gymnastics.”