Marie Welsh wins four titles, including the all-around with a record score of 38.0.

BELLEVUE – As Marie Welsh sat and waited for her score, a coach told her how much she enjoyed her just-completed routine.

“That’s one of the best floor performances we’ve seen out there,” she told Welsh.

The judges agreed, giving Welsh a 9.85 and a 9.9 for a composite score of 9.875, earning the Spartan gymnast a district title in the event.

That was one of four events Welsh won as the Bainbridge gymnastics team qualified for state at the 3A District 1 and 2 gymnastic meet Saturday at Sammamish High School in Bellevue.

The junior also won district titles in the vault with a 9.6 and on the bars with a score of 9.625.

Welsh also took home the district all-around title with a score of 38.0 while the team took third overall with a score of 167.8.

The all-around, vault and floor scores are new school records, while her score on the bars tied the school record.

“Phenomenal,” head coach Cindy Guy said of Welsh’s performance. “She’s such a competitor. That floor routine – I didn’t see one wobble.”

Assistant coach Lorry Gilbreath felt the team did their best while under the weather.

“She’s on TheraFlu,” Gilbreath said of Welsh. “Half of our girls are sick, so we’re really happy with their performance.”

The Spartans had a bye to start, then began their rotation on the beam, where Welsh scored 8.9, but fell off once.

“The fall on beam made me want to do better,” Welsh said. “It kind of made me upset and made me want to strive to do better on all the other events.”

Welsh did just that as she turned in a beautiful performance on the floor, nailing all of her floor passes while putting on some fancy moves – and all with a smile.

“I really love to play in front of the judges,” she said. “I just shut my whole entire team out and look at the judges and smile at them. (The) floor (exercise) comes pretty easily to me, so I like to show it off.”

Welsh also got some help from her teammates who turned in some key performances of their own.

Sophie Wenzlau scored an 8.975 on the beam with no falls, while Annie Zuckerman scored an 8.625 and Lauren Fleming scored an 8.2 – both with no falls.

Wenzlau finished eighth overall on beam while Welsh was ninth.

The top scores continued on the floor with Wenzlau scoring a 9.1, while Katie Mathews scored a 8.95 and Zuckerman had an 8.85.

“It’s a really stressful meet,” Gilbreath said. “There’s a lot of noise, high energy. We have a young team, so to get there and be able to compete well in such a loud and crazy meet was great.”

Despite performing on a different type of vault they’re used to, the lowest score on it was an 8.2 by Mathews.

Eva Fazzini scored an 8.675 while Wenzlau had a score of 8.65.

The bars, however, was surprisingly their toughest event.

The judging was tight for all the teams, but Zuckerman had the next highest score next to Welsh’s with a 7.175.

Wenzlau had the lowest score with a 6.1 as she struggled to complete her routine.

“That was just a fluke,” Gilbreath said of her performance.

Guy also felt the easier routines contributed to their low overall score.

“Three of our kids only start at 8.0,” she said. “So that hurts. But we’d like to get Kathleen and Annie going (with) optional (routines) because you have the potential to score higher.”

Even with the tougher judging, the third place finish still met their goal of making it to state.

Guy gave credit to co-captains Katherine Samstag and Stella Wilson for their leadership this year.

Gilbreath felt its “made a difference in our season.”

Welsh is happy they’ve made it back to state as a group.

“We really wanted to go to state as a team,” she said. “I feel like if we just keep at it at the gym and don’t let any other teams get to you, then we have a really good chance at state.”

The 2A/3A gymnastics meet is Friday and Saturday at the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall.

Paskell makes it to Mat Classic

In a different and difficult regional, Peter Paskell was the lone Spartan to make it to state.

The senior co-captain placed third in the 145 pound category at the Region IV 3A Regional Wrestling Tournament Saturday at Sunnyside High School in Sunnyside, 30 miles outside of Yakima.

He lost to Danny Alvarez by pinfall in the opening match, but rebounded to defeat Nathan Hale’s Rashuad Johnson in a consolation match.

Paskell then beat West Seattle’s Jesse Roark by a 9-7 decision and Mt. Spokane’s Corbin Richard by a 11-9 decision to go into State as the third seed.

Mathew and Stephen Ritualo took sixth in their weight classes, just missing a trip to state.

Mathew beat Eastmont’s Jason Wold by pinfall, but lost to eventual champ J.T. Gonzalez from Sunnyside by pinfall.

He then lost a close 5-3 decision to Mt. Spokane’s Justin Scott and a even closer 10-9 decision to West Seattle’s Delano Jordan.

Stephen lost to Aung Sithu of Kennewick via pinfall, but came back to pin Anthony Say of O’Dea in 3:26.

He then lost to North Central’s Nathan Brown by pinfall and Eastside Catholic’s CJ Danforth by a 11-6 decision in a rematch of their Metro title bout.

Eli Narte, Matt Tetlow and Robert Ferguson all lost two straight matches.

Bainbridge finished 14th with 26 points.

East Valley of Spokane won the district title with 180 points.

Mat Classic XIX is Friday and Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.