HIGH SCHOOL GYMNASTICS: Permian girls’ breakthrough highlights district qualifier with Odessa High, San Angelo Central

Every step made Friday night, and every tumble, every clap clouded with chalk and every flip to the floor, all brought the championship season that much closer.

And Permian is charging into it.

A pair of wins for the Permian gymnastics teams, and a major breakthrough effort, highlighted the ECISD schools’ optionals meet with San Angelo Central on Friday night at Permian High School, as teams fine-tuned routines on their way to championship meets starting in March, with the Permian girls making the biggest statement of the night.

In winning the team competition, the Permian girls bested rival juggernaut San Angelo Central for the first time in more than a decade.

The Lady Panthers scored a 107.350, to top Central’s 106.950, while the Permian boys won on their side with a score of 154.900 against second-place Central’s 148.300.

Permian head coach Brandi Simmons said the night marked the first time the Permian girls have beaten the Central girls in a meet since before she took over the program in 2006.

The Lady Cats most recently won three straight state championships from 2013-15, and are perennial powers.

“We’ve just been kind of hitting some walls, so this was one wall we were able to get over,” Simmons said after the meet.

The Permian girls were led by standout performances in the floor exercise.

Permian’s Joannaly Gonzalez won the event with a 9.800 while the Lady Panthers’ Bridgett Pando took second with a 9.750, with both leading the Lady Panthers to rack up 28.550 on the floor for the team standings. Central piled up 27.000 for the team standings on the floor, and while the Lady Cats held a marginal edge on vault, balance beam and uneven bars, that difference on the floor pushed Permian out front.

“I feel like in times past, when we’ve gone in to a meet with San Angelo, I feel like their goal is just to do what they can and not really know that they have the ability to beat them,” Simmons said. “That’s been our thing lately, is, ‘Just go in being confident and knowing that you have the chance to beat them.’”

Now, the Lady Panthers have seen it for themselves, with title meets just a month and half away.

On the boys side, Permian was led by boys all-around winner Brandon Dominguez, who won on the rings, the vault, the parallel bars and tied for first on the high bar.

Dominguez led a younger group of Panthers into the gym, with some of the team’s standouts out or limited due to injury Friday. Eric Mendoza didn’t compete, and regular contender Ryan Dominguez was limited, going through sets without a dismount as he worked through a leg injury, while taking the hits to his scores accordingly.

Though the Panthers weren’t at full strength, head coach Chris Soto said he saw plenty of younger talent stepping up.

“What I like of what I’m seeing right now is, you’ve the younger guys, guys that haven’t stepped up, they are stepping up,” Soto said. “To hit a 154.900 tonight — we’ve done that with our top guys, so I know there’s just massive improvements coming.”

The Odessa High boys finished third with a score of 141.200, while the Odessa High girls took third with a 96.200.

Bronchos coach Tony Gonzalez said his team will use Friday’s meet to fine-tune optional routines, with just a few more optional meets left on the schedule before the district meet in March.

“I was a little disappointed in some of the performances, because we’ve been hitting them in the gym over and over, and then we came here today and they were a little off,” Gonzalez said with a shrug.

Meanwhile, first-year Lady Bronchos head coach Lisa Torrain saw her squad improve from an optional-meet mark of 88.700 on Jan. 20 at the Harold Green Invitational to a score of 96.200 in optionals on Friday.

“Every day they’re training, it gets better and better,” Torrain said. “We had so many good things happen today. It’s baby steps.”

The Permian gymnastics teams will be off until another district qualifier meet on Feb. 23 at Odessa High. Odessa High will travel to El Paso for a meet next weekend.

The district championships meet is scheduled for March 23 and 24 at Permian.