Capturing first place helped Highline High School savor the glee.

Laurissa Engelhardt captured all-round honors for Highline High School to lead her host team Pirates to victory in a three-way Seamount League gymnastics meet on Tuesday, January 4.

Highline accumulated 132.4 points to outdistance Renton (111.7) and Evergreen of White Center (93.65). The program is progressing well for the Pirates.

"We have strong senior leadership," said 13th-year coach Dawn Tessandore. "Mia and Laurissa work hard with the younger gymnasts. We had to turn out and for the first time I had to cut 35 of them. This year, we have four boys that compete although their scores don't count in the team totals. There are no cliques and that's neat. They really bond and show hard work."

One of the boys on the squad expressed his feelings about being able to participate.

"This has been a really great experience," said junior Travis Deslongchamp. "I'm learning new ways to flip while learning control and being swift with smoothness. I enjoy working with the rest of the team. It's fun to see the progress in each other."

Engelhardt scored 27.25 while capturing first on the vault at 7.9. The Highline athlete danced to a second place 6.65 on the floor exercise as well as positioning herself well for a 7.1 runner up spot on the balance beam. With her third place swing of 5.6 on the uneven parallel bars, she outdistanced the field of all-arounders.

Teammate MIchelle Roberts hung on to the third spot in all-arounds by scoring 24.25. Third place on the beam (6.95) solidified her overall effort.

Highline's Mia Alvarez captured individual championships on the floor exercise (8.7), balance beam (8.4) and the bars (6.8) despite undergoing a sub par performance.

"Overall, this wasn't a great meet for me because I didn't score in one event," observed Alvarez. "The last time, I won the all-around. Our team just needs to keep working on our skills and determination. I'm also a club gymnast and hope to make state."

Other top individual performances for the poised Pirates included Jennalee Gould springing to third place on the vault at 7.5, and Andrea Bjelanovic tumbling to a 6.6 third place floor routine.

Captains are Brigitta Fader and Kendra Luciano-Neely. Luciano-Neely joins Engelhardt and Alvarez in the all-around arena.

Highline built up to the meet by displaying the theme of the meet-silly socks.

"We like to have a theme for our regular season meets," explained Tessandore. "For this one we thought about the show "Glee". The silly socks filled us with glee."

Although the Evergreen Wolverines placed no one in the top three, they continued their improvement under third-year coach Lindsey Duerre and crept nearer to their goal of scoring 100 points. Evergreen's program has really picked up the pace since third-year coach Duerre took over.

"Three years ago, we had six turn out," she said. "Now we have 36, including three boys. This has been a good experience. We have had girls that have never been in gymnastics. Now, we have seven that perform front hand springs over the vault. All the teams support each other."

Rachel Flansaas, Michelle Chen and Karen Luchi are the captains while Ariel Rova and Luchi lead the all-arounds.

"I'm doing well," said Rova. "It's great to be with the rest of my peers and my team. This was my first time to do a back handspring on the floor. The team and coaches really support me."

Renton was led by the 24.45 second place all-around performance by Selina Villagomez. Gomez vaulted to second place at 7.6 to highlight her efforts. Liza Murtaugh finished second on the bars, scoring 5.8 for an RHS top three spot.

"I had confidence," said gymnast Cynthia Fang about her Renton team's performance.