U-Hi gymnasts all about the team
Tracy Duncan is adamant.
“We’re not leaving anyone behind,” the University gymnastics coach insists. “We’re just not. We did that once before and we’re not going to go through that experience again.”
The Titans compete Saturday in Kennewick in the Eastern 4A Regional gymnastics meet. For the first time, it’s a winner-take-all meet for every team involved.
With schools reshuffled to add a sixth classification, Class 4A has taken a major hit in gymnastics participation. For the first time, the big-school state meet will be smaller than the Class 2A/3A meet. Only four teams will compete for a state title: One from the region stretching from Seattle north to Bellingham, two from the region stretching south from Seattle and just one from east of the Cascade Mountains.
In addition to the single team slot, the regional will send one all-around competitor and the top three individuals in each event: floor exercise, vault, uneven bars and balance beam.
“We are going to state as a team,” Duncan insists. “We’re just going to have to get it done. We had to leave some kids behind the first year (co-head coach) Karen (Renner) and I were here, and that was just too hard to do. We’re not doing that again.”
The Titans were second to Mead in the All-Greater Spokane League meet Jan. 27 at Mead, but by the slimmest of margins – less than three-tenths of one point.
“We looked at our performance and we figured we left 9.75 points on the bars through mistakes,” Duncan said. “I asked every one of our gymnasts to take a look at their performances and see if they could find three-tenths worth of mistakes in their own routines. They all could. We all can own that loss, and we all can do something to make up for it.”
The regional field will be smaller than the All-GSL meet. North Central, Mt. Spokane and Lakeside all compete in the 2A/3A meet, with Richland entering as the lone Class 4A team from the Columbia Basin League.
That means the field is pretty easy to handicap, but not so easy to pick a winner.
Richland’s Danielle Taylor, scored 36.8 as an all-around at an invitation in Issaquah in early January and is the favorite to win the lone state all-around berth at state.
“We’re going to concede the all-around title to her,” Duncan said. “From what I hear, she consistently scores higher than anyone in the Greater Spokane League.”
That may be a premature concession.
Taylor won both the balance beam and bars at the CBL District meet and took all-around honors with a score of 37.725. That score would have placed her second to Mead’s Ashley Dotson, who turned in a 36.125 at the All-GSL meet, just ahead of University’s Tabitha Ward, who scored 35.325.
Richland’s team score from the district meet was 153.175, which would have placed the Bombers fourth at the GSL meet behind Mead, University and Central Valley. That means the Panthers and Titans will likely duke it out for the one state team spot.
Ward is in a unique position for the first time in her gymnastics career: leading a team into a big meet.
Ward transferred from Rogers during her sophomore year. A veteran club gymnast, she planned to join the U-Hi team last year but tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee and needed surgery. In her one and only season of high school gymnastics, she’s the Titans top all-around competitor.
“When you do club gymnastics you kind of look down on high school gymnastics,” Ward said. “It’s just not the same sport. But I have to say that it’s been a lot tougher than I ever expected, and my coaches have helped me become a better gymnast than I ever was in club.
“And the fact that this is all about a team makes it so much fun. We’ve all come together and pull for each other.”
That level of team support pulled the Titans through an outstanding team floor exercise at the league meet. University boasted the four top individual scores and the team outscored their nearest floor competitor by almost two and a half points.
Cortney Gilbert posted her best score of the year to place second to Monica Marmolejo.
“You are going to smile, and you are going to let your screwball personality shine through,” Duncan told the freshman before sending her out for her routine.
And she did, turning in a 9.475 that tied Central Valley’s Maria Alderman for second.
“I knew she was going to be nervous, so I had teammates standing in all four corners of the mat so she would always see a friendly face cheering her on,” she added.
Duncan shifted the rotation to better showcase Gilbert.
“We had her going early in the rotation, and she was getting scored lower because of it, I think,” Duncan said. “We moved her after Monica, and she had the best score of the year.”
University will start Saturday on the uneven bars, the event that got them off to a slow start at the GSL meet. A good rotation could set up a Titan run that will send the team on to Tacoma.
“The important thing is confidence,” Ward said. “The bars is a tough event. It takes a lot of high-level elements to get up to a 10-point routine. Most girls don’t have those elements. I don’t even have all those elements.”