Junior flips around in gymnastics

Junior Cecilia Wiggins has dedicated most of her life to gymnastics, which sometimes has cut into her school and personal life, but she believes it’s worth it.

While most of her meets are local, she has traveled around the country, including Houston last year and Seattle earlier this year.

She recently competed in the Chris Wallers Heart of a Champion meet in Pasadena on Feb. 28. She got 8.850 points on vault, 9.100 on bars, 8.650 on beam and 8.700 on floor; each event has 10 possible points. Out of 10 girls in her age division, Wiggins placed third on bars, sixth on beam and sixth on all around.

“It was my personal best of the season, it was exciting to be able to have accomplished a this all around score of 35.000 compared to last year’s,” Wiggins said.

Until recently, the beam was her best event, but at level 10—the top level in high school—she has excelled in bars.

Wiggins noted that she’s behind in gymnastics, having reached level 10 only as a junior. Each level requires a certain number of skills at different difficulty levels.

“When I was 5, I watched a college meet and fell in love,” Wiggins said. “I immediately pretended that I could do these tricks and gave my parents heart attacks as I flipped off the couch and hung upside down from the stair bannister. They finally put me in [recreation] class so I could learn how to fall.”

She started tumbling at the recreation center at her local park in Sylmar and moved to the Gymnastics Unlimited Club in Valencia a year later. She can now be found at Gymnastics Olympica USA in Van Nuys.

“Gymnastics is incredibly difficult,” Wiggins said.

She practices five days a week, for four to five hours a day. It’s no wonder that enrichment is her best friend because that’s when she gets most of her schoolwork done.

Though she would like to continue her sport after high school, she’s not certain about doing gymnastics in college. According to Wiggins, there’s not much to do in the sport after reaching 22 years of age.