Half Moon Bay gymnastics flying high

“It definitely motivated the Mountain View girls for that next year to win,” said Sarah Wallace, who serves as head coach at both the Mountain View and Los Altos.

Since HMB’s 2022 upset, three Santa Clara County teams have followed as CCS champs. Mountain View took the team title back-to-back in 2023 and ’24, and came up short of a three-peat Wednesday at Gymtowne Gymnastics SSF. Homestead dethroned Mountain View this year, claiming the 2025 CCS crown with 148.35 points, just ahead of Los Altos’ second-place score of 148.3.

“Literally a quarter of a step,” Wallace said of the scoring difference, demonstrating with a slightly imperfect pirouette.

Mountain View settled for third place at 142.85. Half Moon Bay placed fourth ay 142.7, led by senior Paige Zanette’s 10th-place overall performance with 36.750 points.

Zanette’s outing marked the end of a noteworthy four-year varsity career. She was the lone freshman on the upstart 2022 squad, one that featured a core group from Gymtowne Gymnastics SSF’s sister club, Gymtowne Gymnastics Coastside in Moss Beach.

“That was my favorite team,” Zanette said. “It was just full of old teammates from my club from Gymtowne. And we just all came together for one last year. It was great.”

This year, Zanette is HMB’s lone senior, on a team that features juniors Emma Alexander, Malia Menary and Ida Hallberg, and freshman Saldahna Constant.

“The little grandma, right here,” Zanette said.

Zanette had a senior group around her Wednesday, however, with her longtime friend and Gymtowne Coastside club teammate, Ava Normant, competing for Mercy-Burlingame. Normant tied for sixth place in the all-around with 37.900 points, including a highlight 9.700 score in the floor exercise.

Another one of Zanette’s former Gymtowne teammates, Mia Rose — who doesn’t compete in high school as she attends Terra Nova, where there is no gymnastics team — was also on the sideline Wednesday to show support.

“I was so happy,” Zanette said of Rose’s presence. “That was my favorite thing ever.”

While Zanette is the “grandma” of the HMB team now, she was one of the catalysts of getting the team off the ground as a freshman in 2022. She and then-sophomore Jaya Miller — now a club gymnast at Dartmouth University — figured why not carry their success on the club circuit to high school.

“We came together and were like: ‘We can do this, we can build a team now,’” Zanette said. “‘Let’s do it.’”

It took some doing. Gymnastics is not recognized by San Mateo County’s Peninsula Athletic League, so HMB joined the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, and is still the county’s only public school represented in it.

“We’ve had coaching switch-ups all four years, but we’ve managed to keep it together,” Zanette said. “Surprising, but I’m glad.”

Tamara Yearwood was HMB’s head coach in 2022. Mikaela Sendino ran the program the past two years. The Cougars are now coached by Zanette’s mother, Lisa.

Mercy’s Normant enjoys big finish

It might be easy to lose track of Mercy-Burlingame in the CCS gymnastics shuffle. Mercy fielded just one athlete in Wednesday’s CCS finals and, at that, Normant stands a slight 4-11. That 4-11 stature stands tall on the gymnastics floor, though, as Normant proved with her sixth-place finish at CCS, tying with Los Altos’ Tabitha Lee.

“I feel I did very well,” Normant said. “I’m proud of myself. I’ve definitely improved this season. I finished club up junior year to focus on school, and to just work on getting ready for college. So, it’s been nice to have high school to look forward to once a season. I’ve improved a lot, which I’m very proud of.”

Normant opened the day on vault, and planted a 9.550 score. She followed with a 9.100 on the uneven bars and 9.550 on the beam.

Competing in gymnastics since first grade, Normant joined the Mercy team as a freshman. The team consisted of just her and then-junior Olivia Langridge, who captured the CCS vault championship as a senior in 2023.

Since then, Normant — who is planning on competing on the club team when she attends Colorado State next year — has had just one other varsity teammate, this season, though an injury to that teammate left Normant running solo Wednesday.

“I went solo junior year,” Normant said. “And then this year I was able to recruit a bunch of JVs and another varsity.”

Homestead’s Lifanstev claims all-around title

Homestead’s Irina Lifanstev topped the podium in two events Wednesday, winning the vault with score a 9.750, and also the uneven bars at 9.800. Her overall score of 39.100 earned her the CCS all-around championship.

Homestead’s Luna Cheng took second in the all-around at 38.800. Cheng claimed the CCS title on the beam at 9.850, matching the best score in any apparatus on the day.

Cupertino’s Sola Tomine took third in the all-around at 38.700. Los Altos’ Libby Lyon placed fourth in the all-around, and earned the CCS title on the floor exercise at 9.850.

HMB’s Constant placed 12th in the all-around at 36.000, while Alexander tied for 17th in the 42-gymnast field at 35.350.