San Pedro Gymnasts Maintaining Tradition of Excellence

San Pedro High School may be somersaulting, flipping and vaulting into a city gymnastics dynasty thanks to a couple of underclassmen who are building on a long tradition.

The Pirates have won 11 league titles in 12 years, clinching their latest last week, and are setting their sights on the city title which will be decided next Thursday.

They are among the favorites largely because of sophomore star Sheryl Fitt, probably the best gymnast in the city. Fitt already owns four school records out of a possible five: floor exercise, vault, balance beam and all-around. The only one she doesn’t have belongs to junior Linda Swanson in the uneven parallel bars.

San Pedro won city titles in 1981 and 1983 and is viewed as the top challenger to Franklin this year. Coach Liz Joynt cautiously says the Pirates “are in the top four,” but also points out that Franklin has averaged only 0.4 of a point better than San Pedro this year.

Because city meets are open to gymnasts of four levels of expertise, Joynt has a large team (30 girls) that provides depth. Fitt and Swanson are the only ones on the team who compete in all four events each meet, and Fitt is the one who could put San Pedro in the driver’s seat.

“Sheryl’s the best gymnast I’ve ever had,” Joynt said. “Most coaches who have seen her say she is the best gymnast in the city. The floor and beam are her best--she’s probably better in floor exercise but her beam is very strong.”

With San Pedro’s Fittness craze continuing two more years, Joynt should have plenty to be jumping about.

Locke High had the big names in last week’s Marine League track finals, but by the end of the day the meet had become the Earley Show.

That’s as in Gardena’s Lyndon Earley, who set league records in the high jump and 300-meter hurdles and won the high hurdles as well.

The high jump was one of the most exciting one-on-one competitions of the day, with Earley and San Pedro’s Curt Jones blowing away the competition while both making it to 6-9.

The closest competitor made it to 5-10.

Jones, San Pedro’s multisport star, reached 6-9 first, putting the pressure on Earley. Earley, like Jones an all-league football player, returned the favor by matching the 6-9 effort on his second jump and taking the bar to 6-10, a league record by a quarter of an inch.

Jones struck out a that height and Earley failed in three attempts at 6-11. But he wasn’t finished.

He merely ran a 38.6 in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles to break the league mark of 39.2 set by Banning’s Damon Shows last year. Earley opened the meet by winning the 110-meter high hurdles in 14.8.

Some local bowlers feel they have made history while competing in a seniors’ league at South Bay Bowling Center. In their second game of a three-game match, the threesomes rolled exact scores in the same order: Team 1 of Dottie Burkett, Doris Ridings and Fred Burkett scored 136-114-144 while Team 3 of Helen Testa, Dorthea Nilges and Fred Testa also produced 136-114-144.

“Some say they have never heard of it. Some say it’s a million-to-one shot. And some say it’s amazing,” is how Fred Testa describes the coincidence. He jokingly added, “Hey man, even the pros don’t do this, or can’t. You gotta be good.”