After 13 years, Westview’s gymnastics finally secured the title of CIF champions in the 2022 competition.

“Our coach has been expecting us, everyone’s been expecting us to win, so we [had] to do good,” Sarah Chen (11) said. “We’ve been really good [this season] and I’m really proud of us.”

Since 2009, the gymnastics team has made it to CIF’s every season. However, according to the team’s coaches, this year’s team has been the most promising

“I’m excited, because with the team being league champs, then that means that they have a chance of winning CIFs, which would be a first for the program,” Linh said. “I’m also nervous. I want the girls to have a good experience and to have fun and really live it up.”

Gymnastic was the only school sport that didn’t have a season for two years during COVID-19. However, this year, the team is back and stronger than ever, preparing themselves for the big competition, May 20.

“I’m a little nervous [for CIFs] because it’s a lot of pressure being on a team and contributing to the team score,” Aadya Nayak (11) said, “but I know that no matter what happens, my team has my back, and that’s the most important thing.” 

During the tournament, one of their highest scoring gymnasts wasn’t able to compete in the competition, so the team had to substitute Anika Chung (11) in her place.

“We rely on Spring’s scores on two events, vault and floor,” coach Diane Wavrik said. “When we found out that she could not compete in CIF, we knew that would hurt our team score.  Chung was able to step up on both of those events and give strong performances.”

Chung said that the only thing she was really nervous about all meet was having to fill in for a player who generally scores higher than her.

“I had to be good, cause their score was way high, like, really high usually,” Chung said. “I needed to do better; I need to be like her.”

Unlike most other sports, gymnastic’s CIF’s are all compacted into one singular day.

“They get one chance,” assistant coach Linh Tran said. “If you have a bad day, then that’s it. But I think that makes you a better athlete, being able to deal with that.”

After counting up the scores, Chung ended up winning by two points.

The rest of the competition went well with Westview’s gymnasts placing second on compulsory all around, bars, floor, vault, and compulsory beam, third on beam and floor, fourth in compulsory beam, and sixth in compulsory all around.

In addition, gymnast Camille Caires (11) was the Avocado League Gymnast of the year, as well as the CIF Gymnast of the year.

During the award ceremony, the gymnasts were tense.

“Whenever we’re against Mount Carmel, they tend to score way higher than us in compulsory, so it always feels like we’re losing since our scores are so much lower,” Chen said. “But [after we won,] half of us were crying and very happy.”

Wavrik described winning CIFs as the best feeling ever.

“These girls have worked for years (even before they were in high school) to achieve this goal,” Wavrik said. “[Their performances] were amazing! We could not have asked for more.  At CIF we didn’t count any falls.  Many girls had their best routines of the year.  They really did a great job and came ready to compete.”

After ending an extremely successful season, many people on the team believe that Westview’s gymnastics program has a very bright future.

“We definitely have an immensely strong team, and I see the hard work that everyone puts in and how many hours we’re spending at the gym just practicing,” Nayak  said. “I’m really proud of everyone just working so hard to get us where we are, [and] I think that we have the potential to do amazing things.”