Cheney gymnastics battles eligibility, takes fifth at first meet

The Cheney High School gymnastics team snagged the fifth-place spot in their meet at Shadle Park High School on Dec. 6, showing potential despite much of the team being ineligible to compete due to a lack of practices thus far this season.

“Only a few newbies competed and we didn’t quite have enough for a varsity line-up, so we had to take two zeros in vault and bars,” head coach Jamie Frucci said.

For young gymnasts to compete at the high school level, they must attend at least 15 practices, instead of the 10 required by most sports. This year, the gymnastics season was moved back by a week, but their first meet remained the same.

Frucci called the ineligibility “kind of a blessing in disguise,” as it gave new gymnasts an opportunity to study the sport and learn how competitions work.

Mead took the top spot with a score of 159.775, followed by Central Valley at 146.950, Lewis and Clark at 146.800 and Shadle Park at 108.425, with Cheney bringing up the rear with 98.625 points.

“It went better than I thought it would, actually,” Frucci said. “Makayla Miller in particular did really well.”

The top 10 athletes in each event and all-around are recognized, and senior Makayla Miller held her own across the board, placing seventh in bars with a 7.150, ninth in beam with a 7.750 and 10th overall with a score of 29.300. Miller’s beam score was particularly notable as it beats her top marks from last year — in the first meet of the new season.

Sophomore Lauren O’Callaghan and senior Alexis Ewen were both able to bolster Cheney’s numbers, competing in all four events.

“Lauren is a sophomore that has experience, so hopefully she’ll be able to stick around for the next few years,” Frucci said.

Now it’s a matter of teaching routines to the beginners on the squad.

“Getting routines down and having them execute a full routine will be the next step,” Frucci said.

The memorization of routines posed a bit of a challenge as only two practices stood between the girls and another competition at North Central on Thursday Dec. 13.

The team will also practice a few times over winter break to get everyone up to speed.

Shannen Talbot can be reached at shannen@cheneyfreepress.com.