BY GERARDO BOLONG
Contributing Writer

Seems like Mount Rainier has a contender.
The Ram gymnastics team created a scenario in which reaching the state gymnastics meet as a team is in range after scoring 163.425 points for third place in the SPSL 4A sub-district championships held at Mt. Rainier High School on Sat., Feb. 7.

MRHS trailed Emerald Ridge (169.325) and Puyallup (164.575) while outpointing Kentlake (163.375), Olympia (162.4) and Federal Way (153.675) as a group of six teams that moved on to bi-district at the Ram gym on Sat., Feb. 14.

"Our high scores tonight on the floor (44.925) and beam (43.0) have us where we want to be," exclaimed a pleased Ram head coach Ali Kestle. "It's so close. I know we can go to state as a team. We need to pick off one of the Puyallup teams and possibly an Eastern Washington team next week. It's really encouraging."
It was a trio Mt. Rainier top performers who were also highly satisfied and motivated by the events of the evening.

As is customary, Ava Welch led MR, performing a 36.175 silver medal winning performance on the all-around to trail only the 36.875 gold medal score of Tahoma's Tenley Mjelde, who won the bars at 9.3.
On the uneven balance beam, which was won by Alyssa Natsiopoulous (9.375), Welch took second with 9.225. In other individual events, the MRHS athlete rose to 9.35 on the vault for third place behind first place Makayla Waggoner of Olympia (9.7), swung on the uneven parallel bars for seventh (8.0) and danced to a 9.6 second place on the floor exercise (9.6) which was won by Tia Thomas of Federal Way. Thomas bounded to a score of 9.75.

"I'm really proud of my beam," stated Welch. "I connected on my series of a back handspring and a back walk over."

Hailey Sagmoen secured 10th place in the all-around with a score of 33.9 with 11th on the beam (8.825) as her best individual placing.

"I had a nice beam and am proud of how our teammates were cheering," she said. "That helped me push through on all my routines. This was my highest score all season."

Returning to action after one meet off, Regan Hunt scored 7.9 for a 12th spot on bars after an 11th place tie was broken by competition rules while also remaining steady on the other events.

"I'm really proud of my bars," she said. "I was able to pull through with my new skills. This week, I added a pirouette