Winter sports outlook: Ready ?to fly:

Published 2:55 pm Wednesday, December 9, 2015

With a new head coach this year, the Mount Si High School gymnastics team is ready to take on its second year in the 4A division.

Kelly Loranger, the new head coach, worked with the Issaquah High School team for seven years, before moving to North Bend where she has been at Mount SI Gymnasts Academy for five years.

“This is my first year as head coach. Last year they did really well,” Loranger said. “They were really competitive last year and this year we have a few freshman that came in that will definitely benefit the program.”

Some of the gymnasts to watch are seniors Abby Weber, Maggie Kenow, and Amanda Antock. Other notable names include Lauren McCallum, Daisy Hartman, Samantha Holmes, and Shelby Johnson.

Maggie Kenow said that last year’s performance was quite good for their first year in 4A, but this season, the team is ready to do even better.

“We were used to winning in 3A, so we actually had quite a bit of competition last year and we did pretty good. We didn’t make it to state, but we were pretty close,” Kenow said. “So this year going into it I just think we will have a better idea of the competition and can make it farther.”

The gymnastics team has been practicing for a full week longer than the other winter sports athletes. This is because gymnastics is classified as a high risk sport, so 15 practices are required before the first meet, unlike the 10 practices for basketball and wrestling.

Because of this, Loranger said that they’ve been able to work on the difficult events to prepare for their first meet which was Dec. 3.

“I think bars is the hardest event, it’s a lot harder, especially if the girls have grown taller. So it’s harder to find your right swing, so we are just trying to get them back into bar shape,” Loranger said. “That’s been our main focus, but everything else is just trying to get 10 girls on each event and it seems like we are ready for that.”

Before the first meet on Thursday, Abby Weber felt confident that the team could take on the challenges ahead of them.

“I feel prepared. It’s the first meet, so it will be kind of rough. But we will be able to get out all the kinks and we’ll be able to come back stronger.” Weber said.

Mount Si Varsity Gymnastics

Thurs., Dec. 10, at Newport, 7 p.m.

Thurs., Dec. 17, at Samammish, 7 p.m.

Thurs., Jan. 7, at Inglemoor, 7 p.m.

Thurs., Jan. 14, home vs Inglemoor and Skyline, 7 p.m.

Thurs., Jan. 21, at Issaquah, 7 p.m.

Thurs., Jan. 28, home vs Issaquah, 7 p.m.