Southern Section 3-A Gymnastics : Baker Lifts Marlborough to the Title

Marlborough High junior Robin Baker said she was a little nervous going into the Southern Section 3-A Division gymnastics finals Tuesday night at Cal Poly Pomona because of a toe injury that she suffered last week.

But Baker’s injury didn’t seem to bother her performance noticeably.

Baker posted the top score in the balance beam and vaulting events and tied teammate Elna Hubbell in the floor exercise to lead Marlborough to its first Southern Section gymnastics championship.

With Baker and Hubbell leading the way, Marlborough easily outdistanced second-place Tustin for the title. Marlborough finished with 171.05 points, and Tustin had 165.90. Cypress was third with 165.80 points.

“We knew we could win it if we just continued to do what we had done all season,” Marlborough Coach Julie McCarthy said. “We had beaten all the teams earlier, but we knew that some of the other teams could give us some trouble.”

Baker said her toe injury bothered her in the floor exercise and vaulting, but she finished with a 9.3 to win the vault and scored a 9.4 to tie Hubbell in the floor exercise.

She also posted the top score of 9.3 in the balance beam and tied for third in the uneven parallel bars at 8.85.

“At the beginning of the meet we were a bit down, and I came into this with an injured toe,” Baker said. “I had to ice it between each event. I went into a state of non-feeling on the floor (exercise) and vault so it wouldn’t hurt that much.

“But I think what really picked us up was the school support. That really got me going.”

Baker was referring to the boisterous Marlborough fans, who screamed after every mention of their school’s name. There were about 500 fans in Kellogg Gym and most of them had bused in from Marlborough.