STATE GYMNASTICS: Shira delivers

It was quite a weekend for Kayla Shira.

It all began on Friday when the Kentlake senior captured the Class 4A all-around gymnastics title at the Tacoma Dome – scoring a mind boggling 38.050 points and in the process helping her Kentlake team take second place in the team competition.

If that wasn’t enough, Shira returned on Saturday for the individual events, grabbing first place outright in two events – the bars and floor exercise – and tying for first with Woodinville’s Hailey Wells on the beam.

”I didn’t expect it from the season, but it’s really cool,” Shira said.

In the all-around, Shira scored a personal best 38.050, to edge out Wells, who scored 37.850 points.

“That’s definitely the highest score I’ve had this season, even in club. I don’t think I’ve had a score that high before,” Shira said. “It’s definitely awesome.”

Shira entered the floor routine on Friday after watching the Woodinville, which finished first in the team competition with 182.975, wow the crowd with its performance.

“I wasn’t really excited or nervous coming in,” Shira said. “But once floor came around, and I had pretty consistent good scores ahead of me, I just wanted to throw something bigger in there. My coaches told me to save it for tomorrow (Saturday), but doing something bigger just pumps you up more.”

Kentlake coach Marla Boyd agreed.

“She (Shira) was real solid in her first three events,” Boyd said. “She kind of got a little stressed when she started seeing those floor scores come up. We just told her to do a clean floor routine and not throw anything fancy, just do what you know how to do. And lo and behold, it was a beautiful routine.”

Good enough to garner a 9.825 score form the judges and put Shira over the top in the all-around competition. Shira also scored a 9.375 on the vault, a 9.4 on the bars and a 9.45 on the beam in the all-around competition.

In the individual competitions on Saturday, Shira scored a 9.575 on the bars and a 9.825 in the floor exercise to capture the titles outright. She scored a 9.825 on the beam, tied with Wells and was sixth in the vault with a 9.275.

As nice as the individual accolades were for the Washington State University-bound Level 10 club gymnast, Shira beamed when talking about the team’s finish.

“Our only goal was to make it to state as a team, so getting second is beyond our goals,” Shira said. “Puyallup beat us twice in a row, and they were undefeated, so we wanted to finish ahead of them, that was our goal and we did it.”

“I’m super excited, it’s a new school record, too,” Boyd said. “It’s a good time to peak. It was a good meet today.”

In addition to Shira’s performance, Kentlake got a lift from Lynnsey Thielman in the team competition, who finished seventh on the beam with a 9.3 score. Thielman also grabbed ninth-place in the beam Saturday in the individual competition with an 8.85 score and was 26th overall with a 26.500 score. Brianne Gould finished 19th in the all-around with 34.325 points and Becca Peterson was 30th all-around. Katie Steckler finished 34th in the all-around. Brenna Bickel, Janae Long, Kelly Haegerty, Ashley Skinner and Kelli Long also contributed to the team win.

ALSO: Kentwood’s Jamie Larsen came away from the championship meet with a fourth-place finish in the all-around with 37.025 points. Larsen also finished fifth in the individual bars competition with a 9.425. … Tahoma’s Brianne McKenney tied for eighth place in the individual bars competition with a 9.0 score. McKenney also finished 13th in the all-around with a 35.825 score. …Kent-Meridian’s Nora Keith vaulted her way to a third place finish in the individual competition with a 9.375 score. Keith was 25th overall in the all-around.