The Mount Si gymnastics program looks to contend for a league title this season. Led by a couple of top names, the Wildcats will seek to make their mark.

The team is coached by Jessica (Cha) Easthope, who is in her second season. Backing her up is assistant coach Jennifer Batton, who has been with the program since its inception nine years ago.

Easthope will have three key returning athletes, all of whom made big noise at state last season. This threesome is led by junior Georgia Reynolds, whose 36.600 all-around score was third-best among all individual entrants at last season’s state meet in Tacoma.

Reynolds is joined by senior Brittany Cragin, who placed 37th in the individual all-around at state last season, and junior Rachel Karavias, who placed 72nd. Karavias is ready for what lies ahead.

“I’m choreographing a new floor routine right now, so that’s really exciting,” she said. “I’m working on a new dismount on bars that’s a little bit harder than last year, so I’m excited.”

Signs are encouraging, because the team is motivated and excited for the season.

“They’re looking a lot stronger and more confident, so we’re actually working on some new skills and raising our start values so we can score higher,” Easthope said.

This emphasis on higher start values is important, since higher scores can help the team succeed in meets.

“For example, Brittany and Rachel do a bar routine that’s valued out of a starting value of 8.0,” Easthope said. “We’d like to get them to an optional bar routine which starts from a 10.0. So all deductions were previously being taken away from 8.0, and they were scoring in the high sixes, low sevens; this year we hope to start from a 10.0, so that with their deductions they can still score in the high sevens and eights. That makes us much more competitive as a team.”

Other top returning athletes include senior Nikki Stanton, juniors Sara Cuevas, Hannah Exner and Kelsey Larson, and sophomores Shanna Howland and Tandi Duvall. A couple of newcomers to pay attention to include sophomore Kennedy Richmond and freshman Alexandra Swanson.

The Wildcats as a team finished fourth in the league last season behind Newport, Issaquah and Mercer Island. Mount Si will have several new 4A opponents on their schedule this season, including Redmond and Eastlake, the result of league realignment during the summer that saw the Knights, Eagles and Skyline, all of whom were in 3A last season, move up to 4A. Easthope expects her team to contend among the top teams in the Crest division, which in individual sports is a mixed 3A/4A division with the Mustangs, Wolves, Spartans, and Liberty.

Easthope’s ideal outcome is to send a team to state this season, but realistically, she would like to see her team win the league title. That said, her main goal regardless of outcome is to see her athletes to improve during the course of the season and stay healthy.

To help keep gymnasts healthy, they are staying in shape. Leadership in this area, especially for the newcomers, is critical.

“We hope to do harder conditioning to get them strength training more,” Reynolds said. “Kennedy (Richmond) and Lexi (Swanson) are really talented gymnasts, so we’re hoping that they’ll be able to complete the team.”

“We’re just going to be there for them and letting them know what high school gymnastics is like,” Cragin added.

Mount Si has three home meets scheduled this season, and Easthope wants fans to know the team is improving.

“I want them to leave knowing that our program is not stagnant,” the coach said. “We are pushing our program to see bigger and better tricks, and bigger and better skills from these girls.”

To Reynolds, the goal this year is simple.

“I’m pretty sure we can make it to state,” she said.