Low Score Buries Antolin

Jeanette Antolin sat on a high chair, her legs dangling, her hands fidgeting and her head buried on the shoulder of her coach, Don Peters.

The Huntington Beach gymnast, who has fought through a painful ankle injury to make it into the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials, was trying to figure out what happened.

In her very first event, the vault, where Antolin, an 18-year-old Marina High graduate, is strongest and most confident, she completed what she thought were two sturdy, stellar maneuvers. She hit both landings.

It was the start Antolin had hoped for, and briefly, she said, she thought she might have stamped herself as a serious contender.

And then she heard her score. It was an 8.975. Low, very low. Peters sprinted to the judging table and then to Bela Karolyi, the U.S. women’s team coordinator.

“I thought I had done two awesome vaults and then I hear ‘8.9,’ ” Antolin said. “I’m, like, ‘Hello, did you see those?’ ”

Her first vault should have a start value of 9.9 (of a perfect 10) and her second a 9.8, Peters said. “Not many girls in the U.S. do those vaults so the judges aren’t used to seeing them,” Peters said. “That’s all I can figure. That she didn’t get credit for the right degree of difficulty.”

The stunned Antolin never recovered. She finished 11th of 13 competitors and likely will not be picked for the Olympic team.

“I thought I was off to such a great start,” Antolin said, “and Don told me to forget about it, that he’d take care of it. But you can’t just ignore something when you think it’s wrong.”

Antolin missed her mount on the balance beam and scored 8.575. She stepped off the mat during her floor exercise and scored 8.687. Only on the uneven bars, usually not her strongest event, did Antolin compete well. She scored 9.450.