Renton, Hazen gymnastics compete as season nears end

Hazen’s Emma Nguyen and Monica Lai placed in the top 10 for the All-Around competition.

By Benjamin Ray • January 30, 2023 12:00 pm

The Hazen Highlanders and Renton Redhawks gymnastics teams competed at Hazen High School for their penultimate meet of the regular season on Jan. 26.

Also competing were the Juanita Ravens and the Sammamish Redhawks; those two teams finished atop the competition last Thursday night. Sammamish ended the night with the most points, totaling 171.6. Hazen finished just five points behind Juanita, coming in third place. Renton finished fourth.

Sammamish won every event on the night, and Juanita came in second in three out of the four events. Hazen finished second on the floor, edging out the Ravens by .05 points.

The best finisher for the Highlanders was Monica Lai who finished 10th in the All-Around competition. Lai’s best event was the floor exercise where she came in fifth. Nia Richardson was the second-highest finisher. On the vault, she tied for sixth overall in that event.

Another quality performance was Highlander Emma Nguyen who finished ninth overall in the All-Around competition. Her best event was uneven parallel bars where she placed eighth.

Renton’s best gymnast was Katie Chen; she placed just outside the top 20 in the All-Around ranking No. 21. Her best event was the balance beam. Chen finished tied for 20th.

Renton has one final regular season meet on Feb. 2 at Interlake High School. Hazen also has a meet on Feb. 2 at Lake Washington High School. The district meet is Saturday, Feb. 18.