Vaulters make victory routine

In last Friday’s rematch of their last Metro League meet, the Spartan gymnasts added eight points to their team score against Ingraham and Nathan Hale, broke a few records, added a competition first and took one step closer to their goal for the season.

After a somewhat relaxed holiday, head coach Cindy Guy had the team working hard over the past few weeks.

“We don’t get a lot done during break,” said Guy. “We’ve got some pretty high goals, so we really wanted to get into January to start working on improvements.”

Their score of 168.5 against Ingraham and Hale puts the Spartans well on their way to Guy’s goal of “175 or 176” that she feels will get them into the state tournament as a team – a first, should they make it this year.

They remain undefeated this year at 4-0 in Metro competition.

Ingraham came in second with a score of 137.2, and Nathan Hale, whose only gymnast practices with Ingraham, scored a 5.1.

With the top four spots in each event filled with Spartans, Brooke Nall swept all first-place finishes and set a new school record with an individual score of 36.5.

The other three spots were swapped between Dana Cuykendall (34.3), Brittany Belt (33.8), Emily Roche (33.6) and Lizzy Annis (29.8), who tied Cuykendall for fourth in vault with an 8.2.

“I’m very happy with how we did,” said Nall, who feels that the state tournament is a very attainable goal. “We’ve all been working very hard on skills in the gym and we’re just adding them to our routine.”

Nall, for instance, just added a back tuck – a no-hands back flip – to her beam routine and stuck it, making another Bainbridge first in competition. The Spartans swept all six placements in beam – a traditional strength, according to Guy.

Bainbridge competed against Shorecrest on Jan. 15; their next home meet is 6 p.m. Jan. 24 against West Seattle and Chief Sealth.

Event results:

All-around – 1, Brooke Nall, Bain, 36.5; 2, Dana Cuykendall, Bain, 34.3; 3, Brittany Belt, Bain, 33.8. Bars – 1, Brook Nall, Bain, 9.1; 2, Brittany Belt, Bain, 8.4; 3, Dana Cuykendall, Bain, 8.1. Beam – 1, Brooke Nall, Bain, 9.2; 2, Dana Cuykendall, Bain, 9.1; 3, Emily Roche, Bain, 8.8. Floor – 1, Brooke Nall, Bain, 9.2; 2, Dana Cuykendall, Bain, 8.9; 3, Brittany Belt, Bain, 8.8. Vault – 1, Brooke Nall, Bain, 9.0; 2, Emily Roche, Bain, 8.6; 3, Dana Cuykendall, Bain, and Elizabeth Annis, Bain 8.2.

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