Thomas Jefferson and Decatur were on the mat, bars, beam and vault performing well, in their own ways, as the Gators got a second place finisher, Holly Phan, and the Raiders won the meet as a team.

The action also had Kentridge and host Sumner in it Wednesday.

TJ’s 148.15 score bested Kentridge’s 146.05, Sumner’s 142.70 and Decatur’s 135.8.

“We’ll take it,” said longtime Raiders coach Debbie Hunter, in her 34th year with the program. She also has been director of the Raiderettes fun, large, entertaining cheer and dance squad through the years.

Hunter’s efforts show. The Raiders won the South Puget Sound League North Division last year and this team consistently is in the upper half of the SPSL North in gymnastics in Hunter’s time.

This team is completely new. Last year’s group went through a lot of years with Hunter.

“Graduated five seniors,” said Hunter. “Had that group from freshmen to seniors.”

This group she has now is younger, but doing well.

Best performing for the Raiders was Bree Adam, a freshman among many in that class this season for the Raider gymnasts. She took fifth with a 30.95 in the all-around combination that tallies best scores for individual gymnasts that compete in all four events. But, as said above, the Raiders beat all the other teams, including Decatur that had Phan second. Why was that?

Team depth?

“Team depth, yes, that’s it,” said Hunter. “We do have good depth. It’s a good team from top to bottom.”

The Raiders may not have got any first places, or seconds, or thirds or fourths even in all-around competition. However, they got the fifth place finish in all-around, which means a gymnast scored pretty high in all four events. Besides fifth, in all-around, the Raiders came in eighth, ninth, and 10th place. Kentridge and Sumner did their part to dilute the points for their respective teams, too, getting the other places above the Raiders, besides Phan’s second.

That fact of Sumner and Kentridge nixing each other out of points could be why Hunter said, “We’ll take it.”

Maybe there were other factors, too, as to why Hunter said those three words. There were.

“We needed you, Monday,” said Hunter, afterward, still in doubt at that time of the final scores not being announced yet.

Better meet Monday?

“Yeah, we won,” said Hunter. “We really did a good job as a team. We had full effort in every event. They didn’t have falls, or extra swings on bars.”

But you won, Monday, maybe the girls were tired for this next meet two days later?

“Yeah, but we have to step it up no matter what,” said Hunter.

That was a make-up meet with Auburn, Bonney Lake, Rogers.

So you were not sure that after competition was done in all four events of this one at Sumner that you’d won?

“I was thinking we should,” said Hunter.

The girls performances maybe were making her cast some doubt on that thought.

Hunter tried to remove the doubt by having a talk with her girls after their first three events of this Sumner meet.

“They got the pep talk. They were out in the hall,” said Hunter of her team that got asked politely to go outside the gymnasium before the start of their final routines on the vault. Maybe that chit-chat did something, as Hunter admitted, that vaulting, “kept us in the meet.”

It was hard to beat Sumner’s Rachel Heckroth, doing a somersault off the vault, getting a 9.4, for first, but after her was Adam of the Raiders with a 8.7 and then fourth was Brittani Brace, another freshman on Hunter’s team, with a 8.5. Fifth was Brandi Vallejo (8.45).

“Vaulting did a good job,” said Hunter.

All the points in a given gymnastics meet are important, as the top five gymnasts in each event have their scores added together for the coming team totals at the end of the meet.

Hunter’s words before the start of vault were like a good time-out called at just the right time to save a five-second call by the ref, resulting in a turnover.

“She’s a great coach,” said Shelby Printz, who scored a 6.4 on beam, out of the running far as placements are concerned but, for a freshman, not bad. Printz had a score just as good as a few “all-arounds.” And, she is one of the new wave of gymnasts coming through for Hunter following the graduation of the last good pack last year.

“She’s really, really helpful,” said Printz. “And exercises you.”

Which goes to say this: Hunter demands your best.

“Yes,” said Brittany Brace.

There were a lot of freshmen that Hunter brought over to talk. She was wanting the world to know who was going to be the next big star hopefuls for this consistently good program at TJ. Laura Rosa, Dafne Rivera, Vaneassa Church, Brace, Printz, and, Adam all introduced themselves.

“Freshmen power,” said Church.

Right now, this TJ team is a year, or two, away, perhaps from being a state quality team. Perhaps.

For now, it’s doing what a young team should be doing under Hunter’s careful, guided, smart care.

“We’re improving each meet,” said Brace.

Maybe so. Hunter liked Monday’s efforts better than Wednesday’s but the fact remains the same after all that said. The Raiders took first in both meets, with youth helping out along the way as well as older classmen like Lexi Boring, 10th in all-around., Mallory Nunley, ninth, and, Megan McNew, eighth.

Phan of Decatur is a sophomore and she scored 32.65 points, not bad for a club “level 7” gymnast, who was going up against a “level 9” in winner Heckroth, who scored a 36.2.

“Holly had a good meet,” said her coach, Patti Braun. “She stuck her beam routine and nailed her floor.”

Phan was happy with her performance. She took second on beam (9.0) and tied fourth on vault (8.5) and was third on bars (7.0), and finished second on floor (8.15).

“My floor was good, not my best,” said Phan. “I have to work on getting my jumps higher and with more power.”

Goal?

“To just improve and try to make state,” said Phan.

Braun also mentioned Tiana Clinton’s 7.7 on beam, Courtney Fay’s 8.3 vault, and Elizabeth Sblendorio’s 8.1 on vault as good improvement and scores for her team.

She gave them words of help too.

“They can work harder, but it’s a good building year for us,” said Braun. “We have a couple kids waiting to come up from Lakota. We had a couple injuries. So considering that they did good.”