Wednesday, Jan. 15, Mercer Island Girls Gymnastics honored the team’s seniors in a home meet against Newport, Mt. Si-Skyline and Renton-Lindbergh.
The MI gymnasts competing on the four events — vault, bars, beam and floor — were primarily seniors, a departure from the usual lineup that contains a mix of grades on each event. The lineup was chosen to celebrate their dedication to the program during the penultimate home meet. The ten seniors were also honored with posters and flowers after all the events and awards concluded.
“Everyone put on their best performance and it was just so fun,” senior captain Mira Vigileos said. “It was the most fun meet I’ve ever had, and just the spirit of our team is great.”
Certain members of the team during their floor routine did the griddy, a popular dance move.
“There were just a couple of our friends that were like, ‘Okay, if you griddy, I’ll griddy.’ So that was just to entertain the crowd. You know, crowd pleasers,” Vigileos said.
Vigileos also said that the high audience turnout was a welcome surprise.
“The turnout from the audience was really exciting to see,” she said. “More people kept coming in, and it just made the meet so much more fun.”
Score-wise, the Islanders, in a co-op with Newport, placed third. Mt. Si-Skyline placed first, North Creek placed second and Renton-Lindbergh placed fourth. However, Renton-Lindbergh gymnast, Nancy Ta, also won the all-around competition, which combines the scores from all the events that an athlete competed in. The highest MI placer in the all-around competition was Vigileos, who finished 13th out of 46 competing athletes.
Vigileos is excited for the remaining part of the season and is happy that many Islanders on the team are trying new events this year.
“Things are looking good,” she said. “We only have two more regular season meets, but I feel confident in our team. We have way more people trying new events, like vault and bar. So I’m really excited to see that.”
The team’s next meet will take place at Newport on Thursday, Jan. 23.
