The top three finishers at the 2023 Texas High School Gymnastics Coaches Association’s Region 3 Championship meet were the same that finished in the top three in 2022. Only this time, a new champion was crowned in Cooper senior Tristen Reyna, who led the Cougars to a third-place finish in the team standings.
Abilene High’s Joel Dantzler, who finished second last year in the all-around competition, was third this year behind Reyna and defending champion Will Bracken of Lubbock High. Reyna scored 58.300 points during the second day of the meet in the optional round to finish with 110.0 in the all-around competition – edging Brackeen by one-tenth of a point (109.9), while Dantzler was third (108.8), Cooper’s Evan Banks finished seventh (100.8).
The state gymnastics meet will be April 28-29 at A&M Consolidated High School in College Station.
Reyna won three individual events to chase down the all-around title, capturing regional championships in the floor exercise (18.7 points), rings (18.3 points), and vault (19.0 points). He tied with Dantzler for second in the pommel horse (17.8 points), and the pair tied for second on the horizontal bars (17.9 points). Brackeen couldn’t match Reyna’s dominant performance in his bid for a second straight regional all-around championship.
Dantzler took the regional championship in the parallel bars (18.6) over Bracken (18.5) and Reyna (18.3). San Angelo Central won the boys’ team title with 313.6 points, while Odessa Permian was second (308.0), Cooper was third (287.4), and Abilene High was fourth (277.9 points) out of nine teams.
On the girls’ side, Abilene High’s Andrea Volk (69.15 points in the all-around) and Cooper’s Clementine Katele (68.9) both qualified for state in the all-around. Central also won the girls’ team title (232.5), followed by El Paso Eastwood (227.75), El Paso Bel Air (225.2), Abilene High (199.9), Abilene Wylie (194.05), and Cooper (190.25).
Abilene High and Cooper also competed in the District 4-5A championships in March, with Reyna and Dantzler finishing first and second, respectively, in the all-around competition on the boys’ side, and Abilene High’s Azure Martin (third) and Volk (fourth), and Katele (fifth) all finishing in the top five in the girls’ all-around competition.
The AHS girls finished second in the team competition, the boys finished third, the Cooper boys were fourth, and the girls were fifth.
Earning first team all-district honors on the boys’ side were Reyna, Dantzler, and Banks, with Martin earning first team honors on the girls’ team. Second team boys’ all-district honors went to Korban Jackson and Aaron Grow from AHS, while Volk and Katele each earned second team all-district honors on the girls’ team.
Honorable mention honors went to Diamante Gonzales (AHS), Ian Carey (AHS), Connor Spruill (Cooper), and Nicholas Rodriguez (CHS) on the boys’ side, while Kaitlyn Gaither (AHS), Addison Peters (AHS), Addison Gray (CHS), and Abigail Murray (CHS) earned those honors on the girls’ team.
