MI beats Totems, takes stock of Issaquah
By Matt Phelps
Mercer Island Reporter
The gymnastics meet at Sammamish High School featured the band Devo on the loud speaker, leggings and one big Afro.
The first meet of the year between was dubbed ’80s night, and the Islanders performed like it was 1984, the year they won KingCo.
“We are all having fun, a little disorganized, but we are having fun,” said Mercer Island head coach Lenny Lewis, who was wearing a 1980s Islander gymnastics shirt and an Afro wig. “This meet told us how far we have to go.”
The Mercer Island gymnasts were also decked out in 1980s leotards.
“Our assistant coach, Jackie Maloney, even found her old leo in one of the lockers,” said Islander Erika Reutimann.
During the meet, the Islanders officially defeated Sammamish High School, 149.45-134.30. But the big test was how their scores matched up with perennial state contender Issaquah, which also defeated Sammamish.
Mercer Island and Issaquah will not officially face off for their in-league meet until Jan. 3, and the 13.50 deficit was not bad news for Lewis and the Islanders.
“It was a bit different for them to be throwing their full routines,” said Lewis. “We have some stuff to work on.”
While the majority of the Issaquah gymnasts compete year-round, many of the Islanders are just getting back into the swing of things.
Despite the layoff, Islander Laura Maruhashi took fist in all-around with a score of 33.85 against both Sammamish and Issaquah gymnasts. Teammate Olivia Harvey placed second in all-around with a score of 32.35 and fourth against the Eagles.
Maruhashi dominated the beam and vault events with mid-season level routines. On vault, the senior finished six-tenths of a point better than the second-place athlete with a 9.1. Maruhashi went on to win the beam (8.3) with the only score above 8.0 during the meet.
Maruhashi placed second on floor exercise with a 9.25 and second on bars with a score of 7.2.
Harvey performed a clean bars routine to start the meet, sticking the landing and garnering some loud cheers from her teammates. Her score of 8.65 was good enough to win the event.
Harvey’s beam routine earned her 7.1 points, placing her second in the event. But the floor exercise was where the lack of conditioning hurt Harvey as she posted an 8.2 and placed third against Sammamish but tied for 11th place against the Issaquah athletes.
“Our conditioning will get better with time,” said Lewis. “We have a long way to go.”
Harvey finished her scoring by placing fourth on vault with an 8.4.
Vault was where freshman Vanessa Gafney placed inside the top 10 at third for the first time in her high school career as she scored 8.45. Gafney placed fifth in all-around against the Sammamish athletes. The freshman also placed fifth on bars (6.2), third on beam (6.6) and fifth on floor with a score of 8.0.
Reutimann placed fourth on bars with a score of 6.5 despite still being hampered by ankle and back injuries suffered last season.
“We didn’t get enough time to really prepare for the first meet,” said Reutimann, who also placed fifth on vault (8.0) and sixth on floor (7.8). “The first meet is always the hardest. I think we all feel like we have a lot to prove. We want to set a high standard for the season.”
Brittney Horn placed sixth on beam (6.2) and sixth on bars (6.1), and was sixth in all-around against Sammamish gymnasts.
The Islanders will take on Skyline tomorrow at 7 p.m. during their first home meet of the year.
