Together, Camas gymnasts rise

Together, the Camas High School gymnasts made history before midnight.

Shannon Ross, Ashley Carter, Caleigh Lofstead, Alexis Sabatini, Gabrielle Bird, Hannah Marquis, Riley Truitt, Emily Karkanen, Tamaki Murata and Hope Richter became the first Papermakers to clinch a district gymnastics championship trophy.

Camas collected 166.65 points to win the six-team scramble at Northpointe, in Vancouver. Heritage followed in second place with 159.45.

“We just made history in Camas. It’s cool to be a part of that,” Carter said.

Together, these 10 Papermakers are on their way to compete in the 4A regional meet Saturday, at Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie.

“We have to keep this energy going, especially on that four hour bus ride,” Ross said. “We gotta keep driving.”

Ross racked up 34.6 points to finish in fourth place in the all-around competition. She scored a 9.5 in the floor exercise, a 9.0 on the vault, an 8.75 on the beam and a 7.35 on the bars.

Karkanen eared fourth place on the bars (7.8) and Lofstead claimed fourth place on the vault (8.95). Carter took fifth place on the floor (9.1). Marquis snagged sixth place on the beam (8.7) and the bars (7.6). Bird grabbed sixth place on the floor (9.05).

After a snowstorm postponed districts for five days, the competition didn’t start until 8 p.m. Wednesday. Although this might have been the latest these Papermakers have stayed up for a meet, it was worth the wait.

“Even though we had to come here at 8, nobody complained,” Lofstead said. “We just wanted to have a good time and show the judges all that we have learned.”

Read more about the district and regional meets in Tuesday’s print edition of the Post-Record.