GSL tumblers make big leap

TACOMA – Traveling to the west side of the state can be an eye-opening experience for GSL gymnasts.

Last year, the GSL put only two competitors into the 4A state individual championships with the highest placer finishing eighth.

This time around at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall, four GSL gymnasts competed, but every one finished eighth or better.

It appears the area tumblers are beginning to get the idea.

“This made us want to work harder,” said sophomore Ashley Dotson of Mead, who tied for seventh in an extremely competitive floor exercise with a 9.475 and placed eighth in the vault with an 8.6. “It makes you want to work harder, stick everything and just clean everything up.”

U-Hi junior Kayla McGahey scored the GSL’s best finish, fourth in the uneven bars with a 9.225.

Inglemoor’s Michelle Low took top honors in two of the four events, winning the vault and the floor exercise. Low was also the 4A state all-around champion this year.

Mead senior Kristina Schramm finished sixth in the beam with an 8.95 after an eighth-place finish in the same event last year.

After her top-10 finish last year, Schramm claimed the beam wasn’t her best event.

“This year, I would call it my best event,” Schramm said.

Central Valley junior Maya Morgan placed seventh in the vault at 8.675.

“They’re judging pretty hard here,” Morgan said. “I’ve never been that good (at the vault), but I made it. I’ve got to work harder and learn some new skills. It was fun.”

Three of the four individual qualifiers should return next year, with the same attitude that helped them improve on 2004’s showing.