Mercer Island Gymnastics Team Finish Seventh at 3A State Tournament

The Mercer Island High School Girl’s Gymnastics team posted a season high score of 159.175 on the way to a seventh place finish at the 2011 WIAA State 1A/2A/3A Gymnastics team championship meet on Friday evening at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall.

The Islanders making their first trip back to state since 2006 after taking first last week at the Sea-King District meet knocking off Mt. Si High School put up several season-best individual performances that pleased Mercer Island assistant coach Kelsey Buswell.

“The team performed amazing, it was a total team effort working together to get our highest team score of the season.” She said. “We were nervous before the meet but once it started we competed like it was a normal meet.”

Vanessa Gafney had the top individual performance of the competition for Mercer Island.  She took 15th place in the uneven bars event posting a score of 8.15. Kari Johnson also turned in a strong 23rd place showing on the vault where she posted a score of 8.75.

Mercer Island Top Performers

Vault: Kari Johnson 8.75,Vanessa Gafney 8.55,Tonavo Crow 8.25

Beam: Kari Johnson 8.55, Vanessa Gafney 8.1, Emily Lightfoot 7.7

Bars: Vanessa Gafney 8.15, Kari Johnson 7.4, Tonavo Crow 7.325

Floor: Vanessa Gafney 9.075, Kari Johnson 8.55, Kristin Trumble 8.25