Los Altos Town Crier » Lancers vault toward another CCS title

By Pete Borello

Image from article Lancers vault toward another CCS title

Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier

Gymnastics Roundup

y claiming the crown at last year’s Central Coast Section championships, the St. Francis High gymnastics team broke a seven-year streak of finishing second.

Now, the Lancers are looking to put together a string of CCS titles.

The CCS championships are just two weeks away, and undefeated St. Francis appears to be in good position to capture back-to-back titles.

“We have been very fortunate this year,” Lancers assistant coach Nancy Kludt said. “We have tremendous leadership from super seniors Noreen Juliano and Laura Warmenhoven, as well as the best depth we’ve ever had.”

St. Francis (3-0) wrapped up the SCVAL South Division title last week with a 170.550-63.100 rout of Cupertino. The host Lancers placed 1-2-3 in every event but the floor exercise, in which Cupertino’s Hilary Anderson took second.

St. Francis junior Jamie Lawler won the meet’s all-around title with a score of 33.050. Tess Pinard, also a junior, placed first in the vault (8.600) and floor (9.400). Katharine Shultis won the balance beam (8.450) and Juliano prevailed in the uneven bars (9.550).

“In the past, our uneven bars has been our weak point,” said Kludt, who assists head coach Lynn Horiye. “But this year - with the contributions from freshman Courtney Sinclair, sophomores Kat Shultis and junior Corinne Allen - we are posting our best bar scores ever. Noreen leads our bar team with a 9.60 average in league competitions.”

This year, Kludt said the Lancers need to improve most on the beam.

“We are still counting falls on beam, but plan to work the kinks out before the league finals on May 11,” she said.

As usual, vault and floor are St. Francis’ strongest events, according to Kludt.

The Lancers closed out their regular season on Tuesday with a non-league meet against visiting San Mateo, last year’s CCS runner-up. The meet took place after the Town Crier went to press.

The CCS championships, which St. Francis has already qualified for, are scheduled for May 16 at San Jose State University. The Lancers have won two CCS titles in all and have finished second nine times in the last 13 years.

Individually, Allen placed eighth all-around in last year’s CCS competition with a score of 34.550.

Kludt said Juliano “is on target to score a strong 36.00 all-around at CCS” this year.

Eagles sweep week

Los Altos wrapped up second place in the SCVAL South Division last week with convincing wins over Cupertino and Gilroy.

The Eagles (2-1) dominated host Cupertino 147.15-62.2 on April 24 and dispatched visiting Gilroy 161.25-96.1 on Thursday.

Los Altos sophomore Emily Keenan posted the top all-around score in both meets, tallying a 33.95 against Cupertino and an impressive 36.3 vs. Gilroy.

Keenan won three of the four events on Thursday: the bars (9.3), beam (9.3) and floor (9.4). Teammate Ciera Kash prevailed in the vault (9.0).

Sophomore Kash won two events against Cupertino: the beam (9.4) and floor (9.25). Los Altos freshman Nicole Rossi claimed the bars (9.3) and Keenan won the vault (8.5).