Olympic Gymnastics Center athletes vault to the top of Washington

A pair of young gymnasts who train at the Olympic Gymnastics Center in Silverdale are state champions now.

Aliyah Cabrera, 9, and Samantha Wallace, 10, both of Poulsbo, took first place in their respective age divisions in the vault competition at the 2010 Level 7 Washington State Championships last weekend at Seattle Pacific University.

Competing in the Child A division, Cabrera won the vault with a score of 9.725. She placed third in both the beam and all-around competition, registering scores of 9.5 and 37.175.

Wallace competed in the Child B division, winning the vault with 9.45 points and placing fifth in the all-around with a score of 36.025.

“They worked really hard all season,” coach Greg Mutchler said. “They are going to shoot even higher next year.”

Forty-eight teams and more than 200 athletes competed at the state competition, and Olympic Gymnastics finished 14th overall with a team score of 109.8. Leading Edge Gymnastics Academy of Everett won the team competition with 113.8 points.

Mutchler sent six Level 7 athletes to the competition, Nicole Hansen, Vicky Camp, Danessa Blandford and D’Anne Davidson being the others. Hansen took sixth in the all-around in the Child B division, while Davidson placed fourth in the all-around in the Senior D division.

“We’re getting a real young group moving up,” Mutchler said. “They all did really well.”