San Diego Section Gymnastics : Santana High’s Dynasty Expected to Continue

Santana High School girls’ gymnastics team have won seven meets and two invitationals this season. The team set a CIF record by scoring 219 points in one meet against Mt. Miguel and Helix. And most impressively, no team has come within 15 points of Santana in any meet this season. That’s comparable to a football team winning every one of its games by at least four touchdowns.

So is there any wonder the Santana team is favored to win its eighth CIF San Diego Section championship in the last 12 years Saturday in the CIF championships at Santana?

“It’s going to be awfully tough to beat us,” Coach Melinda Dallas said.

The Santana dynasty started in 1974, when Mary Daniels led the team to its first CIF championship. During the next 10 years, Daniels’ teams won six titles and finished second four times.

This year, however, Daniels left the team in order to spend more time with her family, and Dallas, an assistant coach for a year, took the job. Santana hasn’t missed a beat.

“Mary really has done a great job with this program,” Dallas said. “We’re able to hold gymnastics classes all year around. That way we don’t have any off-season and these kids can’t get out of shape.”

But what really keeps Santana on top is the talent.

Freshmen Eileen Maul and Dawn Hanson, and junior Jamie Virgil were the top three finishers in the optional all-around competition at the Grossmont League championships. They figure to finish in the top three again Saturday.

Virgil was the CIF all-around champion two years ago and finished second last year. This year, however, she’s been forced to make some adjustments.

“This year it has seemed a little different,” Virgil said. “Last year, for example, we all wanted to win the team championship so badly because we had finished second the year before, that we really pulled together. This year, though, all the other teams are down a bit and all of the competition seems to be between our own club.”

“Actually I encourage the competition,” Dallas said. “When the kids are battling against each other, it makes the team that much stronger as a whole. This team hasn’t really had any problems because they all seems to get along pretty well.”

Still, with the team championship most likely already in the bag, Maul, Hanson and Virgil will be going head-to-head Saturday.

“I’m just going to go out there and have as much fun as I can and just see what happens,” said Maul, who scored a season-high 38.10 in the all-around earlier this season and enters the CIF meet as the favorite. “Being on the team has helped me a lot with all of the rooting and support so I want to make sure we do well in that, too.”

Meanwhile, Virgil (who has a high score this season of 36.5) and Hanson (36.6) will be chasing their teammate.

“It is kind of weird because you want your team to win, but you want to win, too,” Hanson said. “But, the pressure will be off us because if we mess up, we know we have other on the team who will make up for it.

“Me and Jamie have been going back and forth all season but it’s going to be tough to catch Eileen because she’s such a clean gymnast.”

With the top three competitors at the meet and the CIF championship almost locked up, Dallas has only one more problem. How to make sure her team is fired up for the meet.

“We’re looking to break that CIF record and score 220,” Dallas said. “If everybody is hitting, I think our chances are very good to do it.”