There was a whole lot of screamin’ going on Thursday night at Nathan Hale High School, and for a good reason.

The Spartan gymnastics team claimed the 2004 Metro League title — their fourth in a row since joining the league in 2001 — and they did it by completely decimating the competition.

Led by senior Dana Cuykendall and juniors Brooke Nall and Brittany Belt, the Bainbridge squad claimed 25 of 30 medals, sweeping the vault and uneven bars competitions and leaving only five spots of 18 in the beam, floor and all-around for Nathan Hale gymnasts.

Chief Sealth and West Seattle were effectively shut out of the proceedings by the dominant Spartans, who scored 168.5 team points, and the Raiders got no closer than fourth place in the floor and all-around events.

Nall took her second Metro all-around title, and broke three school records in the process — besting the top BHS bars and vault scores with a 9.525 and 9.5, respectively, and her 37.30 in the all-around completed her blue-ribbon evening.

“The records are exciting,” Nall said. “Having your name go down permanently, well, until the next person breaks it, is a great feeling.”

“I’m happy to have our goals met,” head coach Cindy Guy said, “and happy that the kids did so well.”

“Well” might be an understatement.

The setup at Nathan Hale turned a few heads upon first inspection. The standard-issue gymnastics spring floor was replaced by a 40-foot by 40-foot wrestling mat, described by assistant coach Lorry Gilbreath as being “hard as a brick,” and the uneven bars were a good two inches closer together than what Bainbridge had been using all season.

Guy had her team “tone things down a bit” to compensate for the changes, but not many noticed — Nall, Brittany Belt and Cuykendall were well-oiled machines on the bars, taking the top three spots with no competition other than teammates Carrie Kirkpatrick, Katherine Samstag and Emily Basile.

The clean sweep of the first event put the Spartans in an advantageous position, and they didn’t let up on the balance beam.

Lizzie Annis performed a solid routine, with nary a wobble until until her front-flip dismount, but good enough for a 7.625 and fourth-place. Belt ripped out a pair of flawless back handsprings and had only the slightest of wobbles on her front flip dismount, putting her in third.

Cuykendall made her staple beam routine look simple — nailing a back handspring into a high wolf jump and two clean back walkovers

— and the senior’s 8.8 gave her second place. Nall’s back handspring to back flip combination brought a smile to the junior’s lips mid-routine, and elicited a squeal of delight from her teammates. A tight full-twisting front flip dismount capped her effort, and Nall earned a first-place 9.25.

The oddly out-of-place wrestling mat doubled as the floor routine venue, and while it was a bit less giving than what the Sparts were used to, they wrung every ounce of bounce out of the hard surface.

Wendy Tawresey combined sultry belly-dance moves with over-extended split-leaps for a sixth-place 7.7. Belt made three perfect passes on the floor and gained an 8.55 for third place.

With music that sounded like it was straight from a John Williams movie score, Cuykendall combined flair and drama with a silky-smooth flow rarely seen in prep gymnastics.

And Nall closed the event out with the power tumbling and secondary passes that no other competitor could even come close to matching — including an old-school “bounder,” or two-footed takeoff front handspring straight out of a leap — a rarely-used flourish that sent the judges scrambling for their scoring book.

Her performance elicited a “go Brooke!” yell from the Nathan Hale team, and she came away with a 9.025, and another first place.

The Spartans continued with the house-cleaning on the vault, taking first through sixth-place on runs by Belt, Annis, Basile, Cuykendall, Samstag and Nall.

Nall’s Tsukahara on Bainbridge’s final vaults brought more than just a near-perfect 9.5 out of 9.7 for the junior — it drew audible gasps from the crowd and competitors alike.

The Bainbridge junior varsity gymnasts also had a strong showing at the meet, with April Newman taking first in the all-around. Beth Allen scored a 6.25 on the balance beam for a first-place finish, Jessica Dunlap and Newman went one-two on the bars, and Newman’s 8.3 on the vault was good for another victory.

Before the final all-around and team scores were even tallied, the Bainbridge squad and both coaches were aglow.

“We’re feeling it, maybe our best score ever,” Gilbreath said. “And on a wrestling mat, that is just insane.”

Nall’s 37.30 led the all-around competitors, followed by Cuykendall in second, with a 34.725, Belt in third place with 34.125 and Samstag taking fifth with 29.475 points.

The win puts the Spartans at 14-0-1, and advances them to next weekend’s District 1-2 championships at Sammamish High School.

But Guy isn’t focusing on the pressure of being the lone Metro team in a tough field of KingCo and Seamount teams.

“We’ve been to Sammamish before,” Guy said. “We’re familiar with the warmup gym, we know what the rotations are going to be.

“It’s all mental, and we’re ready.”