MOUNTLAKE TERRACE
Midway through the 2009 Shoreline Cup, the Shorewood girl’s gymnastics team finished its routine on the uneven bars and stopped to watch Shorecrest turn in an impressive performance in the floor exercise.
An hour later their roles reversed, and Shorecrest nervously watched Shorewood’s floor exercise to see if its slim lead would hold up.
When the dust had cleared Shorewood was a bit short, and Shorecrest had won the Shoreline Cup outright for the first time in school history.
“It feels awesome,” Shorecrest first-year head coach Alie Hofmann said. “I’m so proud of them.”
Shorecrest outscored Shorewood 40.450 to 34.950 on the floor, and that advantage was enough to hand the Scots a 151.775 to 147.550 victory at Cascade Elite Gymnastics on Saturday, January 24th.
Shorewood had won the cup every year since it began in 2002, with the exception of 2003, when the two schools tied.
Shorecrest gymnasts LaToya Thomas (32.750), Neva Mahler (32.225), Niki Harris (32.150) and Javi Sobarzo (31.900) put on a dominant display, finishing first, second, third and fourth in the all-around.
“Those four girls have been doing club for some time,” Hofmann said. “They’re very well-rounded gymnasts.”
Fittingly, in the floor exercise, those four took the top four spots, with Harris, a freshman, posting a blistering 9.200 to place first and co-captain Neva Mahler posting a 9.000 to place second. Thomas (8.550) and Sobarzo (8.250) rounded out the top four.
Mahler, recovering from patellar tendonitis, had been unable to compete on the floor or the bars earlier in the season and Saturday’s meet marked her return to the all-around competition. In addition to placing second on the floor, she also won the vault with a score of 8.675 on her way to a second place all-around finish behind Thomas.
Thomas won the beam with a score of 8.500, placed third in the vault after a tiebreaker and second in the bars on her way to winning the all-around competition.
The only Shorewood gymnast with a first place finish was Tyanna DeNova, who won the bars with a score of 8.100.
Kyla Riley of Shorewood placed fourth in the vault after a tiebreaker, second in the beam, eighth in the bars and fifth in the floor exercise to lead all Shorewood gymnasts with 30.200 points.
“Definitely Kyla Riley (performed well for us),” Shorewood head coach Susan Riley said. “She was sick, so we weren’t sure if she was going to compete. She didn’t go to a club meet earlier in the day.”
Shorewood used its depth to narrowly outscore Shorecrest as a team in the vault, bars and beam, but Shorecrest’s performance in the floor was too much to overcome.
“They had four high-end club girls,” Riley said of Shorecrest. “Our girls worked very hard. We have the same problem with districts.”
In a sub-regional meet held simultaneously with the Shoreline Cup, Shorecrest’s team score of 151.775 was also good enough to defeat Bellingham (110.900) and Sehome (75.400) and secure a spot at 3A Districts which will be Feb. 14 at Sammamish.
“I think the team’s weakest event is bars, so for districts I want to focus on getting stronger bar routines with more difficulty,” Hofmann said. “Vault is generally a strong event for us, so I would like to work on learning more difficult vaults to raise our vault scores.”
Shorecrest advanced as a team thanks to its victory, and Bellingham and Sehome split the individual 3A District invitations.
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