ROOM TO TALK : Torrey Pines Big Favorite in Gymnastics

There’s a time to be silent and a time to speak out.

Last year, the Torrey Pines gymnastics team was caught in between, able to do little more than whisper, when it finished behind Santana and Mt. Carmel for the San Diego Section team championship.

This year, Torrey Pines is outspoken. The Falcons are favored to dethrone Santana today at the optional finals at Torrey Pines.

So sure are the Falcons of this victory, they say they would have to self-destruct in order not to win. “And San Pasqual would have to have the meet of their lives,” said Torrey Pines Coach Shawn Wirth.

The Falcons are first heading into the optionals after scoring a school-record 109.40 points in Wednesday’s compulsories. Santana is second with 104.75 points.

Said Torrey Pines’ Lelli Hose, who won the compulsory individual all-around title with a school-record 37.0 points: “We haven’t come this close in a long time. If we just keep doing what we’ve been doing all year, we’ll do fine. We’re all very optimistic.”

But San Pasqual Coach Laura Hadfield said not to count her team out.

“We’re not that far behind them,” she said. “All it takes is for them to have a bad day and us to be right on.”

Torrey Pines became the section favorite based on its winning performance at the league championships. There, the Falcons outscored runner-up San Pasqual, 216.65-210.05--both school records. Santana won the 2-A Grossmont meet with a 205.00.

Although scoring in usually difficult to compare, Wirth said there is parity in judging in San Diego because the judges are the same.

“The point spread is the only reason we’re favored,” Wirth said. “If league finals are any indication of how we’ll finish, we should be first, San Pasqual second, Santana third and Fallbrook fourth.”

Noteworthy in the order is the position of Santana, which has won 10 titles since the section began keeping records in 1974 and has finished no lower than second.

According to Wirth, there is no county power shift--Santana is merely having a down year.

“Santana’s just not as strong,” Wirth said. “They graduated a lot of girls and lost some when they split with West Hills.”

“We lost all our optionals (performers), except one,” said Becca Webster, Santana’s first-year coach. “We’re in a rebuilding year. We have no seniors.”

Still, Webster said the Sultans and the Golden Eagles should fight for the runner-up spot.

“San Pasqual has a little lead over us score-wise, but it’s a matter of whoever hits (their routines),” Webster said.

Torrey Pines was undefeated in league tri-meets. Its only loss was early in the season to Santana, when the Falcons were without Tasha Taylor, defending section optional champion, and Julie Kawasaki. Both were competing with the Gymnastics Center of San Diego.

“They beat us at the beginning of the year,” Wirth said, “but we’ve beaten them in every invitational since.”

Scoring is divided between compulsory and optional rounds, and although optional gymnasts are more accomplished and perform their own routines--compulsory gymnasts must perform uniform Class II and Class III routines--the less-prestigious compulsories are of equal importance.

“Their routines aren’t as advanced,” Wirth said, “but their scoring counts just as much.”

The top three scores from each team in four events--32 gymnasts from eight teams are competing for the title--are totaled after today’s competition to determine the team winner.

While Torrey Pines’ strength is its compulsory gymnasts--two are juniors who have been doing the same routines for three years--Wirth said they will be equally hard to beat in optionals.

“My compulsory team is so much stronger than anyone else,” Wirth said, “but frankly, I don’t see anyone beating out my optional team, either.”

Taylor and Kawasaki are Wirth’s top optional gymnasts. Because they joined the team late, after their club seasons were over, Hadfield said the Falcons have a distinct advantage.

“If Shawn had kept her primary team, we would have been league champs,” Hadfield said. “The team we have is the team we started out with.”

As long as a gymnast has participated in her league meet, she is eligible to compete in the section finals. It is a common custom in gymnastics for a club athlete to join her high school team late, but San Pasqual’s athletic director wouldn’t allow it.

“It was too late and unethical,” Hadfield said. “I agreed with it. The girls should be in a certain number of meets to compete in CIF.”

Although Hadfield said many schools allow club athletes to compete high school, the majority of gymnasts are not from clubs.

Hose plays field hockey and was a member of the 1989 Torrey Pines’ section co-champion girls’ soccer team. She is a part-time gymnast and said she hoped to finish well to prove that club competition isn’t a necessity.

“I would be excited (to win),” Hose said, “because most top gymnasts go year-round. It would be an honor to show people that you don’t have to compete club.”

Taylor, who is favored to win her second all-around title, competes with a club but likes high school competition for several reasons.

“In high school, you get to compete every week, and you get used to the pressure,” she said. “The caliber of competition isn’t as high, but I like it. The judging is more relaxed and you get more recognition.”

Teammate Kawasaki, Paige Peterman of Fallbrook, Santana’s Jennifer Cooper and San Pasqual’s Amy Sullivan and Ashley Orman will be attempting to keep Taylor from defending her title.

“Last year, I wasn’t expected to do well,” Taylor said. “This puts a lot of pressure on me to win. I would feel weird if I won last year and didn’t this year. CIF means a lot to me.”