Duran, River claim titles at district gymnastics

Hudson’s Bay senior wins all-around, vault, floor exercise

Taisha Duran. Jennifer DeBellis. The Columbia River gymnastics teams.

Champions all at this district meet of champions.

Oh, and you can add a freshman from Fort Vancouver to the list, too.

Taisha Duran of Hudson’s Bay won the all-round title, and the Chieftains took the team title Friday night at Prairie High School at the Class 3A/2A district championships.

A year ago, all six Class 3A state champions — team, all-around, vault, beam, bars, and floor — qualified first out of this district meet. Three of the individual champs, as well as the team, were back this year, trying to qualify for state again.

“This was probably one of the hardest years,” said Duran, a senior who also won the district all-around as a sophomore. “I was really fighting to be in the top two.”

Duran won the vault — her state championship event — and the floor exercise and finished with 37.800 points for the district crown. Dakota McMillan of Union was second at 37.2.

“It was the first time competing with Dakota this season,” said Duran, who scored a 9.7 on the vault and a 9.6 on the floor. “It was pretty scary.”

McMillan injured an ankle in warm-ups Friday, but she had no regrets.

“It means a lot to me,” she said of her second-place showing. “I’ve struggled through injuries, and to come out, wanting to stick it, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

DeBellis, who was the state champion on floor in 2009, ended up taking the district title on the bars this year. This might have meant more to her than her state title.

DeBellis fractured her jaw in five places last summer in a bicycle crash. At first, she was not sure she would be able to return to gymnastics, and she was particularly apprehensive about performing on the bars.

“The first two weeks, I couldn’t make the easiest skills on my routine,” she said. “I definitely struggled to get everything back on bars.”

She scored a 9.55 to top her teammate, Jordan Hess, who scored a 9.5. Fort Vancouver freshman Chelsea Zimmerman represented her school with a win on the balance beam.

“Fort doesn’t really get much recognition for gymnastics,” she said. “It was nice to give Fort a gymnastics title.”

She called the victory a surprise.

“I’ve never been a beam girl,” she said. “I just pulled it out today. Beam was really good today.

She also earned a trip to state as an all-round.

Columbia River, which hasn’t lost a district team title in more than 12 years, did have some competition this season. Union and Camas had aspirations of knocking off the Chieftains.

But River scored a season-best 169.850 to top Union at 165.600. Both programs qualified as teams to state.

“The thing is, we went into this not expecting to win,” said Hess, who finished third in the all-around competition, tops on the River squad. “We wanted to just try our hardest.”

DeBellis elaborated: “We’re not remembering last year. Every one has a fair shot. We still need to work our best and try our very, very hardest and hope it works out.”

The Chieftains will try to have the same outlook at state, Feb. 19 at the Tacoma Dome’s Exhibition Hall.

“We really don’t have expectations,” Hess said. “Our biggest goal was to go out there, have fun, and make it to state. We did that.”

“There’s nothing else we have to qualify for,” DeBellis added. “This is it.”

Of course, some of the Chieftains were thinking of the possibilities, though.

“If we can qualify with a 169, there is a chance we could win state again,” Columbia River coach Alicia Green said. “There is a chance at repeating as champions. That would be amazing.”

Winning this meet, as last year proved, gives all of district champions hope for a state championship.