Team chemistry, bond lead to success in competition for gymnastics

The girl managed to keep her balance all the way through her routine, ending it with a superb landing off the beam. The MC gymnastics team nailed virtually all their landings last Friday during league finals.

MC won with a score of 223.3 against La Costa Canyon, Fallbrook and Our Lady of Peace. Senior Shelby Bruce won All-Around Compulsory with a score of 38.8 score, and senior Tina Wilhelm won All-Around Optional with a score of 37.2.

“They supported each other, and they competed very well,” coach Monique Lamphiere-Tamayoshi said.

The girls have been extremely successful all season, going into today’s first round of CIFs with an undefeated record.

Lamphiere-Tamayoshi believes there is one thing that helps the girls succeed.

“They lean on each other,” she said. “They know that each person is there to help them no matter what.”

Junior Frankie Coniglio agrees that their team chemistry is very strong.

“We have a really good team this year, and everybody gets along,” Coniglio said. “In the past there have been cliques and stuff, but this year we all get along really well and everybody kind of motivates each other.”

This ideal team chemistry also helped the girls reach victory in their meet at Westview. Many teams think they always do better at home, but the gymnastics team feels that they will do well no matter where they compete.

“It’s really nice because we have a lot of team support, so it doesn’t really matter where we compete,” Coniglio said. “[Westview is] pretty good. We beat them.”

With the CIF tournament beginning today for the team, the girls have been working especially hard.

“Well in the beginning of practice, like this season, it was practice every skill and get everything down and clean everything up,” Coniglio said. “But now, like these next two weeks we have Leagues and then CIFs, so we’re just mainly working on routines, routines, routines, routines every single day.”

This kind of discipline may become difficult for some teams, but gymnastics has their way of motivating each other.

“All the seniors were told to bring in an inspirational quote,” Coniglio said. “So we do like little team bonding things that everybody’s a part of.”

The coaches are also an integral part of the team’s success.

“They give us little pointers like how to do better,” said Coniglio.

The girls will be competing today in the first round of the CIF tournament.

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