Somers Captures Gymnastics Title

She made a elegant Anastasia, but her role as championship gymnast isn’t exactly play acting.

Julianne Somers of Granite Hills, performing in a classic style reminiscent of the top Eastern European gymnasts of years past, tumbled off with the San Diego Section girls’ gymnastics title Thursday at West Hills.

Somers, a sophomore, made short work of Fallbrook’s Paige Peterman’s attempt to become the fifth gymnast since 1975, when gymnastics championships debuted in the section, to win back-to-back titles.

Somers won the uneven bars, finished second on the balance beam and floor exercise and tied for sixth on vault to win the optional all-around title with 37.7 points. Mt. Carmel’s Natalie Cadondon was second with 37.15 points and Morse’s Annie Bretado finished with 37.05 points, good for third place. Peterman, a senior, tied Jamie Harms of San Pasqual for fourth with 36.85 points.

Mt. Carmel, with two of its three all-around gymnasts finishing in the top seven spots, took the team title from three-time defending champion Torrey Pines, which finished second. San Pasqual was third. Justine Eady of Helix, who was eighth all-around, was named Gymnast of the Year.

As a freshman, Somers was third in this meet, but that was when her loyalties were split between the gym and the theater, where she was the lead in her high school play. Debbie Lenz, one of Somers’ coaches at her private club, the Cuyamaca YMCA, suggested she concentrate on gymnastics for a year, just to see what would happen.

“I didn’t tell her not to do the acting thing,” said Lenz, her coach of three years. “I just knew what she could do if she wasn’t dividing her time.”

Somers true aspirations lie in the theater--she wants to be an actress. But in the meantime, gymnastics--she hopes it can get her a college scholarship--is a great substitute for the stage.

“Especially on the floor ex,” Somers said. “I can really express myself there. I can get the crowd into what I’m doing.”

The audience was hard-pressed not to get involved with her routines Thursday. Somers started off with a clean bar exercise that she acknowledged didn’t include her most difficult tricks. The key, she said, was that she did the little things well. Her vault, a layout Tsukahara, netted her a low 9.1 considering the difficulty.

Somers implemented a lot of difficult dance elements in her engaging floor routine, performed to the theme song from Beverly Hills Cop and Nu Shooz’ “I Can’t Wait,” and took the lead after three events.

She could, however, wait for her turn on the balance beam, the 4-inch wide wooden stick that strikes fear in the most seasoned of gymnasts and the apparatus that would decide the meet.

“It was the worst, the most stressful,” Somers said of competing last on the beam. “It’s so easy to fall. You can have perfect 10s in everything leading up to it and you still never know. Anything can happen.”

What happened in Somers’ case was that she nailed it. She landed a roundoff into a back layout tumbling pass, then masterfully completed a difficult back flip called a Gaynor layout. In six attempts at the roundoff-back layout sequence in competition, this was only the third time Somers’ landed it. But that’s the way her day went.

“I knew I had to do everything perfect (to win). I knew that if I did the best I could, I’d have a shot,” she said. “Of course, I wasn’t perfect, but . . . “

It was enough.