City Gymnastics Championships : Monroe’s Herring Wins Title

Following up on his performance in Tuesday’s team competition, Monroe High’s Bryan Herring dominated the City individual gymnastics championships at University High Thursday night.

Herring, who led Monroe to its ninth City team title, took first place in five of the six events on his way to winning the all-around competition with a point total of 47.70, seven more than his closest competitor.

“It might sound selfish,” said Herring who took the all-around lead after the first event, “but I wanted to win all six events. I didn’t plan on winning the floor exercise or the pommel horse. I can do a double back flip in the floor exercise, but I knew I had a good chance to win the all-around without taking the risk.”

To the surprise of a near-capacity crowd, Herring scored an 8.35 in the floor exercise in which Juan Valenzuela was favored. Valenzuela, from Huntington Park, stumbled after a double back flip, scoring a 7.95 that put him in fifth place.

Herring’s 8.15 victory in the still rings was a major upset. Favored Brian Robbins of Taft who had trouble stabilizing his legs on his strength handstand, scored only a 6.5 good for fourth place.