EL PASO – Two weeks after the Cooper boys won the District 2-6A team title and Abilene High’s Joel Dantzler won the district all-around championship, all four Abilene ISD gymnastics teams are back in action this weekend at the regional meet in El Paso.
Beginning April 8 and concluding April 9, athletes from District 2-6A – Abilene High, Cooper, Odessa Permian, Odessa High and San Angelo Central, along with several schools from the El Paso area – will be competing for spots in the state championship meet, set for April 21-23 in Rockwall.
Two weeks ago, it was Dantzler and Cooper’s Tristan Reyna, who, along with the San Angelo Central girls and the Cooper boys, took center stage as Cooper hosted the district championship meet at Cougar Gym. Dantzler won the all-around title with a combined score of 105.9 with Reyna – who led Cooper to its first team title in more than 10 years – finished second with 104.7 points.
Dantzler won the floor exercise and parallel bars, while Reyna was tied for second on the floor exercise and the vault while winning the horizontal bars. Aside from his two first-place finishes, Dantzler was third on the pommel horse, seventh on the rings, third on the vault and second on the horizontal bars.
Dantzler had to battle through some lingering side effects of the COVID virus he contracted in January, missing several days of practice and competition. In fact, it’s been a long year for all four AISD gymnastics teams, beginning last fall with the sudden passing former head coach C.J. Jackson, who had been coaching gymnastics in the Abilene ISD for more than 20 years. C.J. also ran Gymnastics Sports Center, along with his wife, Stevanie Jackson, the district’s Executive Director of Student Services and Behavior Supports.
“This whole year has been tough,” Dantzler said. “I got COVID and that hampered my performance. And before that Coach Jackson passed away, so it’s been tough on everyone. But somehow, I pulled through.
“I felt pretty good going into the meet,” he said. “My team gave me that confidence. I knew I had a great chance to win the all-around, and that got me in the right mindset to perform and do my best.”
AISD gymnastics head coach Brandon Cooke said watching Dantzler and Reyna battle for the district title was something he thought might happen going into the meet.
“All year long they’ve been going back and forth,” Cooke said. “Both of them are very talented in their own events. It just came down to form and sticking landings, etc. Joel had a leg up on the high bar and Tristan had him on the rings. They were both very consistent with their performances; Joel just came out on top in that meet.
“There’s room for improvement for both of them at the regional meet,” Cooke said. “They each made some mistakes at the district meet, but if they clean them up, they’ll have more success this week.”
While Reyna was battling for the all-around title, he was also leading the Cougars to the boys’ team title as Cooper scored 289.1 points to top district powerhouse Odessa Permian, which finished second with 287.7 points.
“We knew we had a chance to win the district title, and that was more important to me than winning the individual title,” Reyna said. “We were close last year (second to Odessa Permian), but we wanted to win it this year. We had to compete to Permian’s level, and we knew we could do that. We knew if we completed our routines to our capability, we could beat them. They were at their best and so were we, and that’s what made it special.”
Now Dantzler will have to battle Reyna and Permian’s Sincere Galindo for the all-around title at the regional meet, while Cooper’s boys’ team will battle for the regional title.
Cooke likes the chances of both repeating their performances.
“We went to El Paso earlier in the season to compete in a two-day meet in the same venue where the regional meet will take place,” Cooke said. “Cooper’s boys’ team did really well, and Lubbock High had a gymnast who beat both Joel and Tristan and (Cooper’s) Evan Banks in the all-around. We’ll see him again this week. But I feel pretty good. I have a lot of confidence in how well we can perform.”
Both the Cooper and Abilene High girls will also be represented at the regional meet. The Cooper girls were third at the district meet, which was won for the 21st consecutive time by San Angelo Central. The Lady Eagles were fifth, which is where the AHS boys team finished. Leading the AHS girls is Delaney Story (fifth in the all-around) and Julianne Ballard (seventh in the all-around).
