On to state for Mead, Shadle Park

As Shadle Park gymnastics coach Stoyan Katzarski walked out of Central Valley’s gym Saturday during the 30-minute break for tabulating final results in the East Regional, a passer-by stated the obvious.

“It’s gonna be close,” Katzarski was told.

Shadle got the upper hand, though, grabbing the second team spot to state and joining Mead at the 4A gymnastics state tournament in Tacoma on Feb. 18 and 19.

Four teams – Shadle, Mead, Central Valley and University – entered the final rotation within three points. The Highlanders, despite being fourth, were in good shape, as they were heading into the floor exercise, typically the highest-scoring event.

Mead posted the best score of the afternoon in the balance beam, and Shadle scored big on the floor exercise to grab the Eastern Region’s two berths.

University’s Kayla McGahey was the all-around champion, finishing with a score of 36.575. McGahey backed up her district title thanks to domination on the uneven bars, where she scored a 9.425, four-tenths of a point better than her closest competition.

Shadle’s Katzarski was pleased with his team’s performance on the floor exercises, where they had struggled earlier in the season.

“We needed a score,” Katzarski said. “I told the girls to go have fun and don’t worry about the scores and let the judges decide.”

The Highlanders, without a star gymnast – their top finisher was eighth all-around – posted five scores between 8.825 and 9.2 in the floor exercise, none of which cracked the top 10, but also didn’t fall below 25th.

Shadle will be making its fourth straight trip to state under Katzarski, and has four seniors among the eight competing gymnasts.

“The experience really played a major role,” Katzarski said. “During this meet there were four teams that were very close together. It boiled down to who was strong mentally, didn’t make mistakes and handled the pressure.”

Mead put together a score of 175.375 for first, two points clear of Shadle and an improvement upon its score at districts, which they also won.

The Panthers are still adjusting to competition without Kaila Evenoff, who made first team in the all-around last year while competing for Shadle. Evenoff is out for the season with an elbow injury.

“You could say we were a little nervous,” Mead coach Amanda Workman said. “Not having Kaila makes our scores a little more conservative. Obviously we miss her score, but we’re doing a good job.”

Evenoff’s absence forced some of Mead’s fifth, sixth and seventh gymnasts into some pressure situations, and the Panthers performed admirably.

Senior Morgan Smith was 12th with an 8.2 on the bars, senior Amy Sciuto posted an 8.4 for 24th in the balance beam and freshman Katie Green finished in a tie for 15th in the floor exercise with a 9.15. Those were the only events the three competed in.

Mead also placed two in the top 10 all-around, with Ashley Dotson finishing second (36.525) and Kristina Schramm sixth (35.3).

The Panthers bring experience into this state tournament, finishing fourth last year after coming up two-tenths of a point short of the tournament in 2003.

“Last year was the first time we were there as a team,” Workman said. “This time, it will be more familiar for the girls and the coaching staff.”

Central Valley just missed the team bid to the state tournament, as they held the team lead going into the final rotation, but were heading into the toughest-scoring event – the bars.

CV performed well, putting together the second-highest team score on the bars, but it wasn’t enough to hold on to a trip to Tacoma, as they fell 1.3 points behind Shadle.

Maya Morgan led the Bears, with the third-highest all-around score of 36.475, and Maria Alderman placed seventh at 35.15.

U-Hi dropped to fourth, four-tenths of a point behind CV.

Richland and Kamiakin finished fifth and sixth respectively.

Ferris, which did not qualify as a team for regionals, placed two in the top 10, with Lindsey Haney fifth all-around and Ashley DeCataldo 10th. Haney had the highest score of anyone on the afternoon with a 9.65 in the floor exercise.

The top three all-around gymnasts not part of Mead or Shadle, and the top nine in each event who hadn’t previously qualified as a team or all-around will represent the Eastern Region in Tacoma.