Lake Washington gymnastics takes third at state

Kirkland has a rising gymnastics star in Lake Washington High freshman Audrey Arnold.

Arnold tied for first in the finals for floor routine and finished third in the all-around competition at the Class 3A gymnastics state championships on Feb. 17 in Tacoma. Behind her performances — she made finals in all four individual events — the Lake Washington team placed third as a group.

Arnold racked of an all-around score of 37.225 on the first day, less than a point behind Sammamish’s Sydney Griswold for first. The third-place finish is the best in the last 20 years, at the very least, and may be the highest placement in school history.

But while Arnold might be at the top of her game, the game certainly isn’t a new one. Arnold’s been in gymnastics as long as she’s been able to walk, and took part in club gymnastics before stepping into high school competition this winter.

Arnold tied for fourth in the bars, one tenth of a point behind teammate Kaysha Walford, who took second. Arnold was eighth in the beam and 12th in the vault.

“If you ask her, she would definitely say the floor was her most favorite event,” LW coach Katie Perrigoue said. “She loves performing and acting — everything about it. … She’s very animated and always laughing, and always has something to say to people.”

Perrigoue said Arnold looks up to Walford, who had a similar path through club gymnastics before joining the high school ranks. Walford tied for sixth in the floor routine and wasn’t far behind Arnold in the all-around, finishing fifth. The girls even stood next to one another on the podium.

“Kaysha, at districts, she hurt her ankle and we didn’t think she’d be able to compete at state,” Perrigoue said. But she’s a leader and pulled through. She competed in both days. She could have done much better, but she wanted to be there for the team and it was amazing to see how she continued to compete.

Lake Washington’s Paige Chickering finished fifth overall in the beam and Joeli Pence tied for 11th in the floor routine.

Chickering and Walford are the postseason team’s only juniors, and the rest are sophomores and freshmen. With a young group, in spite of promising athletes, Perrigoue said the team hoped to simply get through a tough district and qualify for state.

“We didn’t realize we could do well at state until after the KingCo meet,” said Perrigoue, who graduated from Lake Washington High School in 1994 and took over the program in 1998. “Everyone kind of started saying, ‘hey, we can do much better than this,’ and girls started working hard on skills over the last couple of weeks.”

Then the Kangs finished third, not fourth as expected, at districts and Perrigoue knew the door was open for a podium finish.

Holy Names Academy won the 3A team title with 176.725 points. Kamiakin was second with 173.825, and Lake Washington was third with 172.05. All three compete in the same district.

“The girls worked so hard for that, and they deserve all the credit,” Perrigoue said. “The team as a whole has a special bond with each other — they’re encouraging each other and building up. It’s neat to see as a coach.”

Juanita’s Daphanie Chan made finals in the beam event, and finished in a tie for sixth.