The Wildcat gymnastics team went to the Sea-King/Northwest bi-district meet to write more history.

Thanks to a solid effort at Sammamish High School, Saturday, Feb. 14, they made history again, advancing to the state tournament.

Mount Si scored a 162.85 to finish second behind winner Bainbridge in a meet which featured top local teams from the Kingco, Metro and Wesco conferences, and also featured individual gymnasts from as far away as Bellingham.

“We made history, and the girls came out here and gave it their all,” said a pleased Mount Si coach Jessica Easthope. “They weren’t intimidated by any other team.”

Georgia Reynolds scored a 36.35 on the all-around event, and was the only Wildcat to medal in this competition. Reynolds’ efforts included wins on the vault (9.25) and floor (9.45), a second on beam (9.175) and a third on bars (8.475). Her performance on vault was much improved from the Kingco meet, where she fell on her landing in both attempts.

Kennedy Richmond scored a third place finish on the floor (9.35) and a 10th on the vault (8.5).

With the team going to Tacoma, “it feels really good,” Richmond said. “I think we’re the right team for it. We’ve all worked super, super hard all season, so it’s just a really good reward to be able to make it.”

Rachel Karavias finished 10th on the bars (7.2).

Brittany Cragin had a personal-best 9.075 on floor. Practice was key

“We upgraded [her] floor routine, and it definitely showed,” Easthope said.

“This is her first high school career nine on floor,” she said.

Senior McKinna Little also had a solid meet. She showed herself as a great team player, taking over for Shanna Howland in two events, the bars and beam — events which Little has little experience in. She put together a nice effort on bars (5.15), and fought through struggles on the beam, including two falls, to post a good score (6.5).

Little also scored well on vault (8.3) and floor (8.3), and received praise from teammates.

“She gets so nervous before those events, so it was really cool that she was willing to do those for us,” Cragin said.

“She really pulled through. She stepped her game up and really just did it for the team,” she said.

“I wanted to take the challenge for myself to compete on those two events,” Little said.

Beam was shaky for Mount Si.

“We worked really hard on that, but obviously we have a lot more work to do on beam this week,” Easthope said.

Mount Si will compete this week at the state 3A gymnastics tournament. Action gets underway at 5:45 p.m., Friday, Feb. 20, at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall. The event runs all evening, and concludes Saturday with individual finals.

Scoreboard

Mount Si at the SeaKing/Northwest Bi-District Meet, Feb. 14 at Sammamish.

Vault: Georgia Reynolds, 9.25 (1st overall); Kennedy Richmond, 8.5 (10th); Rachel Karavias, 8.4; McKinna Little, 8.3; Brittany Cragin, 8.25; Lexi Swanson, 8.15. Totals: 42.7 (top five scores used for team score)/50.85 (all scores)

Bars: Reynolds, 8.475 (3rd overall); Karavias, 7.2 (10th); Cragin, 6.8; Richmond, 6.7; Swanson, 5.75; Little, 5.15. Totals: 34.925 (top five)/40.075 (all)

Beam: Reynolds, 9.175 (2nd overall); Cragin and Karavias, each 8.25; Richmond, 8.05; Little, 6.5; Swanson, 6.15. Totals-40.225 (top five)/46.375 (all)

Floor: Reynolds, 9.45 (1st overall); Richmond, 9.35 (3rd); Cragin, 9.075; Karavias, 8.775; Little, 8.3; Swanson, 6.85. Totals: 44.95 (top five)/51.8 (all)

Team totals: 162.8 (top five)/189.1(all).