She’s confident she can meet challenge

Kayla McGahey has seen the top. She has been to the mountain.

And she’s determined to get back.

McGahey, University High School’s top all-around gymnast, qualified for last year’s state meet along with teammate Janelle Hoffmeister when both were sophomores.

“It was a real eye-opener at the state meet,” McGahey said. “I was so impressed by the quality of gymnasts competing at state. In the Seattle area, the local clubs allow their gymnasts to compete on high school teams, so there were Level 9 and Level 10 gymnasts there. It was awesome.”

McGahey left club gymnastics because of injury at Level 8. The jump from Level 8 to Level 10 is like jumping from Class AA to the major leagues.

“I think it was a real eye-opener for Kayla to realize that she has to step it up and be better if she’s going to succeed at state,” University co-head coach Tracy Duncan said. “I think she’s much more comfortable going into postseason (this year). Her goals are more toward performing well at state instead of just getting there. She’s much more confident about getting to state – and I’m sure she will.”

Duncan’s confidence will be put to the test.

The road to state begins with the district championships Friday at Mead. The regional meet, which qualifies gymnasts for state, is Feb. 12 at Central Valley.

The problem is McGahey is battling a sinus infection.

“I’m confident that I’ll be able to compete (Friday),” McGahey predicted. “I just miss being at practice.”

It wouldn’t be the postseason for McGahey without a challenge of some sort. Last year it was a nagging wrist injury that limited her ability to do a number of routines.

“I had to not use my wrist for a lot of the summer,” she said. “That really limited how I could do and what I could work on. That was really frustrating.”

“We wouldn’t even let her do a round off – she couldn’t do anything,” Duncan said. “She could work on dance moves and she could work on the bars. With her injury, the doctors were concerned about impact on the wrist, not the type of stress she puts on it during her bars routine.”

Which works for McGahey. The uneven bars are her favorite exercise and the one she wants to carry her to the individual event finals at state.

The junior’s confidence has grown as the season has worn on. She finished fourth all-around in the Titans’ first meet, which featured Greater Spokane League powerhouse Mead, easily winning on bars. She placed second all-around against Ferris, winning the vault, and captured top honors in the team’s showdown with Central Valley, winning both vault and bars.

The second time University faced Mead, McGahey placed second all-around, narrowly behind the Panthers Ashley Dotson, 35.5 points to 35.325.

In all, McGahey has won all-around honors in three GSL meets this season, and is confident in her team’s chances.

The league virtually conceded the championship to Mead – easily the deepest team in the league before Shadle Park’s top gymnast, Kaila Evanoff, transferred to Mead – making the race to finish second the only outcome in doubt.

“I’m really confident in my teammates – I really believe we can finish second at district and go on from there,” McGahey said. “We’re a lot stronger team this year than we were last year.”

That confidence is what Duncan has been longing to see from her top gymnast all season.

“Kayla’s biggest challenge is her confidence,” she said. “She has the physical ability. But in the past, the bigger the meet, the more easily she can be distracted. I think reaching state helped her confidence a lot last year and she’s learning to be more focused.”

The only concern McGahey admits to facing the district meet is the warm-up/cool-down nature of big-meet gymnastics. Because there are so many teams involved, there are frequent waits between events.

“You need to be very careful and keep yourself warm between events,” she said. “It’s pretty easy to tighten up if you’re not careful.”

Especially if you’ve been out with a sinus infection.

“Kayla wanted to practice (Monday),” Duncan said. “I told her that we needed her to stay home and get well. I have the utmost confidence that she will qualify for regionals, even if she’s weak coming back from being sick. What I don’t want to see happen is for her to not get healthy.”