Compulsories: The men looked weak on this event with top score going to Yoshi Takei with an 8.70 and Mako Sakamoto next with 8.40. Only 6 gymnasts scored an 8.00 or better on this compulsory. The women looked particularly impressive in executing their compulsory however, with Cathy Rigby leading the way with a very good 9.70 and Linda Methen y close behind at 9.60. Thirteen girls broke the 9's on this event as most of the exercises flowed very smoothly . The pommel horse was tough as usual with only 7 men breaking an 8.00 but this was overshadowed by a brillant performance by Ted Marcy and his 9.50 exercise. The closest scores to Marcy 's score was Sakamoto with an 8.75, Jim Culhane with an 8.65 and Russ Fystrom with an 8.60. Much needs to be done on this event if our All -Around men are going to score well. The Still Rings was the first mens event to show some promise . Takei had the high compulsory exercise scoring a 9.25 with Sakamoto close behind at 9.00. Most of the competition was in the mid-8 's for this event. Mens vaulting was not spectacular and most of the competitors seem to have problems with only having one vault chance. Bruce McGartlin jumped into the lead with a 9.15 followed closely by Sakamoto at 9.10 and Ron Clemmer with an 8.95. Things finally started picking up at the Parallel Bars with five men getting into the 9's. Sakamoto led all chanllangers with a very fine 9.45 performance followed by Mike Kimball with a 9.20, Takei with a 9.15 and Sadao Hamada with a 9.10. Suprisingly the Horizontal Bar turned out to be one of the best events of the day as 19 men broke into the 8's and 4 men into the 9's. Sakamoto again led the field with a 9.40 exercise followed by Takei with 9.25 and John Elias and Jim Culhane tied at9 .00. The dismount seemed to be the weakest part of the routine with very few gymnasts lifting it above the bar.
Womens vaulting did not stand out quite like Floor Exercise but there were 19 vaulters in the 9's. Adele Gleaves held a very slim lead over Nancy Thies and Linda Metheny 0(9.30 to 9.25. Cathy Rigby, Margie Pyle, Vicki Shulee, and Laurel Anderson all were very close with 9.20. Balance Beam was clearly dominated by Cathy Rigby and Linda Metheny as most others had small breaks and even falls to marr their performances. Rigby led the event with a 9.55 with Metheny next with 9.45. The Uneven Bars also took its toll of All-Around people Rigby and Metheny tied at 9.65 and Roxanne Pierce was very close behind at 9.60. OPTIONALS: Friday brought out the optional exercises which packed crowds of 2,000 or more appreciative spectators each session. Sakamoto impressed the crowd with his clean Floor Exercise set and scored a 9.35 with Takei very close behind at 9.30. After poor compulsories Jeff Wiles and Melvin Hill came back with scores of 9.05 and 9.00 respectively. The optionals definitely looked better than the compulsories and it looksas though our work is needed again at the compulsory level. Will we ever learn? Pommel Horse was again highlited by a beautiful 9.50 performance by Marcy followed by a 9.15 by Russ Fystrom and 9.10 by.R. Neuner. The Still Rings demonstrated nice straight arm work with good variety. Takei led all 44
performers with a 9.30 followed by Sakamoto at 9.15, Dave Butz man at 9.05, and Hamada and Kimball at 9.00. Vaulting was a bit weak shOWing mostl y Yamashita vaults with little twisting or somersaulting. Again , only one vault seemed to throw many of the gymnasts off. Melvin Hill led here with a 9.35 followed by Butzman with 9.15 and McGartlin with 9.05 . Parallel Bars was exceptionally exciting and left little to be desired . Yoshi Takei executed a difficult and elegant routine of 9.55 to lead but Sakamoto was very close behind with 9.50 and Hamada with 9.45 . The Horizontal Bar proved to be a very exciting climax to the optionals as Takei again edged Sakamoto by scores of 9.45 to 9.40. Hamada hit solid and clean to score a 9.35 to tie with Mike Kimball. Charles Glass and Jeff Wiles also looked good at 9.20. The womens optionals proved to be exciting and captivated the crowd both sessions on Friday. Many excellent routines were executed as gymnasts tried to jockey for All-Around honors. Vaulting started things off and was much more impressive than compulsories. Again , however, there was very little origination or deviation from the Yamashita vault. Honors were taken by Nancy Thies with a 9.50. Metheny was close behind with a clean 9.35 vault and Rigby and Barbie Myslak held in with 9.30. Balance Beam proved to be the AII-Arounders downfall again as there were many small breaks and falls. Metheny and Rigby wowed the crowd however, with excellent routines of 9.75 and 9.70 respectively. Both routines were outstanding as the crowd sat breathlessly taking in each leap, jump and turn . Friday night session brou gh Floor Exercise and Uneven Bars into view . Both events seemed impressive and brought out the final strength of our womens team. Floor was taken by Metheny as she danced and tumbled her way to an impressive 9.70. Rigby was not far behind with a 9.50, Thies had a 9.40 and Roxanne Pierce a 9.30. Uneven bars proved to be very exciting as many difficult and dangerous skills were executed . Roxanne Pierce brought the crowd to its feet with a meet high of 9.80 as she executed a flawless and difficult set. Metheny was very clean and scored a 9.75 with Rigby very close behind at 9.70. It was at this time Cathy injured her hip and thigh which caused her to sit out the individual finals. The All-Around titles were decided after these two days of competition. Mako Sakamoto defeated defending champion Yoshi Takei 109.20 to 108.60. Sadao Hamada took third with 103.90, Jim Culhane fourth with 101.70 and Mike Kimball fifth with 100.05. The women proved to be the most exciting of all events as defending champion Linda Metheny edged out challanger Cathy Rigby 76.50 to 76.30. Third went to Nancy Thies as she scored a 74.90. Roxanne Pierce scored a 74.35 for fourth as she had trouble on the Balance Beam and Karen Schuckman fifth with a 73.70.
"PNI" On April 15th, Pasadena held its 23rd Annual National Invitational. The " PNI " as it is called proved to be one of the greatest in a long line of gymnastic shows produced at Pasadena City College. Outstanding routines were exhibited by Richard Pascale on Floor exercise; Marty Krein on Rings ; Steve Zamora on Parallels and High Bar; and Doug Boegeron Long Horse. Jim Ivicek was very steady in his all around performance and walked away with the A.A. competition. EVENT RESULTS: FX - Richard Pascale (unat.), Tom Proulx (unat.), Mike Zapp, P.CC , and Dana Shelly. PH - Leonard Caling and Glen Heckenliable (Full. State), and Fred Perkuhn, P.CC R - Marty Krein (PCC), Bob Shirk (unat.), Steve Diggle (Full. State). V - Doug Boeger (PeC), Jim Ivicek (N. Mex .) and Jim McFaul (Golden West). PB - Steve Zamora (Colo. St.), John Aitken (N. Mex.) and Jim Ivi c ek (N. Mex .). AA - Jim Ivicek (N. Mex.), Barney Peters (Cal.), and Carl Satta (Cal.).