The Mercer Island High School gymnastic team took second place at the KingCo meet on Saturday evening at Lake Washington High School. The team earned a 149.375 score, behind Mount Si’s winning score of 155.025.

Despite the team’s high finish, head coach Lenny Lewis said they were disappointed, really feeling like they could have won the meet.

“There are little things we know we can clean up before districts,” said Lewis. He said the team had a tough time on the floor, not necessarily because of how the girls did, but with tough judging.

“The judges were pretty tough on the floor, and I felt our routines were comparable to the other schools, but you have to live with what the judges decide,” said the coach. Lewis said the team did well on vault, but had a hard night on the beam, falling several times, something they will work on in practice this week to fix.

In the all-around competition at KingCo, Islander Kristin Trumble was third, while Kari Johnson finished sixth.

In the vault competition Vanessa Gaffney took sixth, while Johnson finished third, and in the bars fifth place went to Tonayo Crow, fourth place to Johnson, and Trumble earned a second-place finish. In the beam, Gaffney was ninth while Trumble was sixth, and in the floor competition Gaffney was third overall.

With the second-place finish, the Islanders will move to the district meet next Saturday, Feb. 11, at Sammamish High School. It was the first time in three years that the team has made the district tournament as a team.

Lewis said the district tournament will be tough, but thinks they can be one of the three teams moving onto the state tournament.

The team competition at districts will begin at 6:15 p.m.

Contact Mercer Island Reporter Reporter Megan Managan at mmanagan@mi-reporter.com or (206) 232-1215 ext. 5054.

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