Mercer Island gymnastics coach Lenny Lewis is the first to admit he had tempered expectations for his gymnastics squad at the beginning of the season.
His roster didn’t feature a lot of team members participating in club gymnastics, which presumably would serve as an indication of how successful the Islanders could become.
“I didn’t think we’d have a strong team. I thought Interlake would be stronger, I thought Sammamish would be stronger, because last year they were just knocking us out,” Lewis said after the Islanders’ meet against Juanita last Thursday. “The thing about this team, they’re scoring well and doing really well.”
After losing the team’s opener against the undefeated Lake Washington Kangs, Mercer Island has gone on to win four consecutive dual meets, most recently topping Juanita 145-93 Jan. 21 at Mercer Island High School. And, of course, the success has been a welcomed surprise for the longtime Islander coach.
“I was honest with them and I told them, ‘I didn’t think you’d be this good. I thought you’d get beat up by everybody,’” he said. “And they just came out of the gates running and doing well.”
The Islanders dominated each event and occupied seven of the top 10 all-around scores, with three making the top five. Emily Culbertson edged teammate Cece Belady by 25 hundredths of a point to finish with the top all-around score. Culbertson placed first on bars, second on beam, third on vault and fourth on floor. Belady was first in the floor event, first on beam, second on vault and placed 10th on bars. Freshman Mya Levin was fourth all around, placing first on vault, second on bars and fifth on floor.
Lewis credited seniors Belady and Stephanie Prince for coming into the season ready to compete. But when asked who’s impressed him the most this season, the Mercer Island coach doesn’t hesitate with his response.
“Just all of them,” he said. “We’re just hitting things like Cece doing really well practicing during the offseason and coming in and just hitting her routines. [She’s] really clean on floor, hitting on vault, beam is really looking good and she’s got skills on beam that she’s not even throwing. Most of the team has been crazy. It’s Emily Swaya’s first time in gymnastics and she’s our fourth-best person on bar, the girl is just amazing.
“All the girls, they’re all impressing me. Stephanie Prince came back as strong as ever, I expected her to lead as she’s been doing. Everybody just looks good, I’m so impressed with this team.”
Not that there aren’t areas that need refining.
Lewis said he could see the Islanders perform with more fluidity on bars and stop less during their routines. He said his team is still working on staying on beam and hitting all their connections during floor routines. Lewis’s goal for the Islanders is to break a team score of 150. If they can do that, the Mercer Island coach believes the sky is the limit.
“They just got really good and there’s room for improvement,” Lewis said. “We just need to hit, we still haven’t really hit yet. If we can hit those things, the floor and stop stopping on bars and stay on beam, we’ll break the 150 plateau and possibly go on to state.”
Advance to state? Something the Islanders haven’t done as a team since 2011?
“I’m already planning on going to state, I already made my reservations,” Lewis said. “Because I think they can do it, I really think they can. We’ll see what happens.”
