SANTEE – Anticipation loomed Friday for the team scores to be counted at the CIF San Diego Section gymnastics championships at West Hills High School.
After every point was ed for, Westview secured the team title for a fourth consecutive year by the slimmest of margins.
Westview earned the crown by 0.1 points against Mount Carmel, 222.950-222.850.
“It feels amazing,” Westview coach Diane Wavrik said. “It was a really tough meet. Both Mt. Carmel and us had a good meet. Super excited for the girls.”
La Costa Canyon took third place at 214.600, edging out Del Norte, which scored 213.775 points. Steele Canyon rounded out the top five in team scoring with 208.450 points.
San Diego’s Liliana Mendoza won the All-Around Optional title at 35.300 points. She placed third in bars at 8.800 points, fifth in vault at 8.650 points, sixth in beam at 9.200 points and 14th in floor at 8.65 points, delivering the Cavers’ first optional title in school history.
“I feel like I competed pretty well,” said Mendoza, who is the Cavers’ only gymnast. “I just ed to stay tight and squeeze everything. I think that helped me overall.”
In the optional session, Del Norte’s Eva Lam, who shared the beam crown with Westview’s Joyce Chen at 9.350 points, trailed Mendoza by 0.1 points for second place.
Lam’s teammate Sophia Brunsilius came in third at 35.100 points, highlighted by a third-place finish in the floor routine and a fourth-place finish in the beam.
La Costa Canyon’s Audrey Wegener placed fourth at 34.900 points, highlighted by winning the vault title at 9.100 points.
Rounding out the top six among the all-around gymnasts were Mt. Carmel’s Skylar Sprouse, who placed fifth at 34.850 points, and Otay Ranch’s Xiomara Colon in sixth place at 34.400 points.
Mt. Carmel’s Tasha Jeleniowski won the bars title at 9.100 points.
Steele Canyon’s Annabelle Monroe, who tied for 11th overall, won the floor title at 9.000 points.
Westview’s Paguyo captures All-Around compulsory crown
Westview’s Bella Paguyo won the compulsory session at 38.925 points across her four events. Paguyo was the top scorer in three of the four events: 9.675 points in the vault, 9.825 points in the beam and 9.725 in the floor routine.
“She is a beautiful gymnast,” Wavrick said of Paguyo. “She is so pretty at everything she does. But the great thing about her is, even though she’s so good, she really works on every single little detail, which is super impressive. She could just blow it off and say, ‘Oh, I’m really good already.’ She always wants to get better.”
Mt. Carmel’s Sol D’Angelo and Addison Lee took second and third, respectively at 38.350 and 38.275 points.
Lee won the bars title at 9.800 points and 0.1 points ahead of Paguyo.
Westview also had two other gymnastics in the top six. Eva Fortenberry placed fourth at 38.000 points, and Katie Reed tied for sixth at 37.625 points.
“Super excited to have three kids compete to place in the compulsory,” Wavrick said. “In the past, compulsory has been weaker for us. Usually, we’re a lot stronger in optional than we are in compulsory. This is the first year we had a strong compulsory.”
Mt. Carmel’s Yana Pavlova placed fifth at 37.800 points, while Olympian’s Julia Quijano tied with Reed for sixth. Quijano was also named the Gymnasts of the Meet, voted on by the coaches for the gymnast who best excels, both in and out of gymnastics.
