Competing at the KingCo championships with a significant portion of his roster missing in action didn’t stop Mercer Island coach Lenny Lewis from throwing down a challenge for his gymnastics team Saturday at Bellevue High School. Despite the Islanders’ stunted numbers, Lewis wanted to see his team beat someone.

Even with a shortened roster, the Islanders were able to respond.

Mercer Island gymnastics placed sixth at the 2A/3A KingCo tournament Saturday, Feb. 7 at Bellevue High School.

The Islanders finished with a team score of 138.325,  roughly 20 points ahead of Liberty. Sammamish won with a score of 162.875, and the home team Bellevue was runner-up at 149.925. As the top two finishers, both teams advanced to the district tournament.

It was a lower placing than Lewis was used to seeing, but when asked about the results, he said it was expected.

“We were missing 15 girls, 15 girls couldn’t make state,” Lewis said. “If you’re not available to compete at state, [the WIAA] does not allow you to compete in any postseason play. Those are the rules. That’s 15 of my girls because they’re going on vacation during mid-winter break, so they disqualified themselves.”

Considering the conditions the Islanders faced, Lewis said he was pleased with how his team fared.

“I told them, ‘we cannot come in last,’ because we were just totally depleted of our talent. Our varsity lineup [was] almost gone in every event. So I said, ‘we can beat somebody tonight, just hold it together and not come in last,’ and second-to-last ain’t too bad,” he said with a laugh.

“But they had a good meet. They were happy, we had some girls qualify to go on. What more can you ask for, than to have them qualify and continue on? It was good.”

Advancing to districts with the top three all-around scores were Sammamish’s Nykaela Dodson, Bellevue’s Audrey Rose Laura and Lake Washington’s Bailey Johnson. Dodson topped every event and finished with an all-around score of 37.875. Laura was second at 34.7, placing second on vault and bars, tying for sixth on beam and seventh on floor. Johnson was third at 33.525, finishing fifth on vault and bars, second on beam, and tying for seventh with Laura on floor.

Seven Islanders advanced to the district tournament, with two qualifying for multiple events. Rachel Hicks advanced on the vault, bars and floor competitions, and Cece Belady advanced on vault, beam and floor.

Also moving on were Nikki Lim on bars, Emily Menz and Emily Greaves on beam, and Madeline Gile and Jamie Vanderwall on floor.

The 2A/3A Sea-King district gymnastics tournament will be Saturday, Feb. 14 at Ballard High School. Individual competition begins at 9:30 a.m., and teams will march in at 1 p.m.