Island gymnasts soar in Bellevue

The Bainbridge Island Gymnastics Club girls team competed in the Battle in Bellevue gymnastics meet recently, and notched several stellar finishes.

Held at the expansive Meydenbauer Center in downtown Bellevue the weekend of Jan. 18, the event drew more than 50 clubs from the Northwest and Canada and is one of the major competitions for the year.

The Bainbridge team continued to improve with some great individual performances over the weekend, officials said.

The BIGC Level 5 girls started off the weekend’s competition on Friday.

Sofia Fleischmann and Kate Carver had solid meets with Kate doing an excellent floor routine and garnering an 8.725 score. Sofia was solid in all four events and amassed an all-around score of 33.3, which qualified her for the state competition at the end of the year.

On Saturday, the Level 8 gymnasts took the floor.

Siqi Talley continued to impress on bars as she took fourth with a score of 8.575. Mariko Ronan was consistent in all four events and managed a score of 32.8 to claim sixth place all around in her age division.

Finally, on Sunday the Level 6 and 7 gymnasts got their chance to compete.

First to go were the Level 6 girls; Finnely Shaffer and Kate Mahoney. Finnely and Kate both had strong performances on floor, scoring an 8.625 and an 8.7, respectively. They both also finished with identical scores of 32.225 in the all-around competition.

The Level 7 girls were the last to go for BIGC. Susu Bereman took first place on vault with a 9.175 and finished her day with an all-around score of 34.025. Avery Gray also scored a 9.175 on vault to take first place in her age division and capped off the day with an impressive score of 9.15 for a fourth-place finish on floor.