A young squad of Olympic Peninsula gymnasts took on some tough comeptition over the winter break, with the Port Angeles High squad placing third in the five-team Sehome Invitational on Jan. 5.

Port Angeles, featuring athletes from PA, Sequim and Crescent, scored 146.95 team points, behind invite champ Ballard (172.2 points) and Sehome (169.15).

“Our team did well considering we are a team made up of over half freshmen, some with little to no gymnastics experience,” PA coach Jackie Mangano said.

Sequim sophomore Emma Sharp scored an 8.0 on vault to place 10th. Port Angeles’ Anne Edwards, a freshman, and Aiesha LaTourette, a junior, tied for eighth in the floor exercise with 8.9 points.

The team’s next competition is Jan. 12 at the WOW! Invitational in Auburn, an individual athlet-focused meet divided into differeent levels of competition and no teams coring.

“This gives all levels to compete only against athletes with the same skill level,” Mangano said. “It is a fun meet and a chance for the junior varsity athletes to win some awards without competing against much higher skilled girls.”

Port Angeles hosts a “quad” meet on Monday, Jan. 21, taking on Kingston, Klahowya, North Kitsap and North Thurston.