Auburn’s Bailie Davis was golden as a freshman in 2010-11.

In her first year of high school gymnastics competition she punched her ticket to the state 4A meet in the floor exercise.

Now a junior, Davis is looking to help lead the Trojans and earn another berth at the state championships.

Davis embarked on her gymnastics career at the age of 3, joining Auburn Gymnastics before switching to Gymnastics Express, which is now Hart Gymnastics (in Kent).

For the next decade, Davis devoted much of her time to gymnastics, practicing up to 20 hours a week and reaching Level 8 status before taking a break from the sport.

“I quit club when I was in eighth grade,” Davis said. “I just wasn’t feeling it anymore.

“It was different to go from practicing four days a week for four hours to not doing anything,” she added. “It was weird because I had so much free time; I didn’t know what to do without it.”

In her freshman year, Davis parleyed her gymnastics tumbling skills into a spot on the Auburn varsity cheer squad.

“(Cheer) just seemed really interesting,” Davis said. “I’d never done it before. Me and a friend wanted to try it and see if we’d make the team.”

Although some of the physical demands of her cheer routines were similar to what she’d been doing in gymnastics, Davis said the team aspect was a new experience for her.

“It’s pretty different,” she said. “If one person is missing (in cheer) it affects the whole squad. In gymnastics, it’s an individual sport where you’re mostly competing by yourself.”

After her fall cheer commitment, Davis decided to return to the gym for the Auburn gymnastics team.

As a freshman on the Trojan squad, Davis put together an impressive regular season and surged through the postseason meets, earning a spot at the state championships, where she notched a 9.15 floor routine, good for 36th place.

As a sophomore in 2011-12, Davis did not make it out of the district meet.

This season, however, the junior looks to get back on track.

On Dec. 5 she helped lead the Trojans to a second-place finish against Jefferson, Tahoma and Kent-Meridian, scoring a second-place 32.3 in the all-around and winning the floor with a 9.25 routine.

“It’s my most powerful event,” Davis said of the floor routine. “And it’s my favorite. I really like the tumbling and flipping.”

Davis also enjoys the artistic nature of choreographing and selecting music for the floor.

Individually, Davis said, she hopes for a return to state and just getting better every meet.

“I want to work on my tumbling and add some harder skills,” she said.

For the team, which includes standouts such as senior Michaela Zerr and junior Ashley Bechard, the goal is to “be positive and work hard,” Davis said.

“We’ve got a lot of good tumblers on floor and a lot of good freshman,” she said.

The Trojans resume competition at 7 p.m. Jan. 9 with a quad meet against Bonney Lake and Emerald Ridge at Sumner.