Mount Si’s gymnastics team completed its second straight undefeated regular season last Thursday night, January 27, as they posted a win in a four-way meet against Lake Washington, Bellevue and Liberty held at LWHS’s gym in Kirkland.
The Wildcats scored a season-high 158.35 points to outlast the Kangs, Wolverines and Patriots; Mount Si’s score counted just against Liberty, who scored 128.00.
“The girls did fantastic,” said Mount Si coach Jessica Easthope by email to the Valley Record. “We posted our highest team score (of the season) so it’s really setting us on the right path going into (the) KingCo (meet)”.
It was a top-three sweep for the Wildcats in the all-around, led by the Richmond’s. Senior Kennedy won the all-around crown scoring 33.4, while sophomore sister Hannah finished right behind with a 32.5. Fellow sophomore Jessica Trotto tied Liberty’s Hannah Bergam for third with a 31.1.
Trotto’s big night was keyed by two strong finishes in the bars and beam events. The Wildcat scored a 7.2 on bars to take second. She also scored well on the beam with a 7.8 to take fourth. She scored even better in the other two events, the vault (8.1, t-12th) and floor (8.0, t-8th), but her placings in those events were lower due to how well other gymnasts performed in those competitions.
As for the Richmond’s, both of them had top three finishes in three of four events. Kennedy took event wins in the vault (8.6) and floor (9.4), while Hannah had an event win in the bars (7.6).
A number of other Mount Si competitors had great efforts as well. Sophomore Elizabeth Holmes scored an 8.9 on the floor to take second in that event; she finished ninth in the all-around. Junior Lexi Swanson’s strong floor score of 7.8, good for 11th, helped her to a solid 12th place finish in the all-around (28.1). Fellow junior Brooke Bonner continued her steady improvement during the course of this season, using a fourth-place 8.4 on the vault to help herself grab eighth in the all-around (30.0).
Freshman Carissa Castagno also continued to shine, with a second-place 8.5 on the vault and a sixth-place 8.25 on the floor helping her to a 10th place all-around score (29.35). Fellow freshman Aubrey McMichael also had a good outing, as she finished 14th in the all-around (26.5).
Easthope was thrilled with her gymnasts’ continued success. “This is our 2nd season with an undefeated record for regular season meets. What an accomplish(ment) and what a great reward for all their hard work,” she said. “I am so proud of our team.”
The postseason begins this weekend with the Kingco Conference meet, then continues with regionals and the state meet, should Mount Si advance into those events.
