THORNTON – It took a little convincing, but the Green Mountain gymnastics coaches finally talked a talented club gymnast who had been walking the school’s halls to come out for her high school team as a senior.
The Rams certainly are glad she decided to join the team, and so is Gianna Martyna.
On Friday night at Thornton High School, the Green Mountain senior finished with a winning four-event score of 37.6 to rise above all others and claim the Class 4A all-around title. Martyna is Green Mountain’s third all-around winner, joining Emily Graham (2018) and Melanie Zaharias (1998) in the program’s history books.
“It’s definitely an honor to have the opportunity to represent my school,” Martyna said. “Apparently, I’m only the third person from my school to have won the all-around, so that’s really cool. That’s definitely really wonderful to be able to do that and it’s such a great opportunity to be able to compete here and have so much fun with everyone.”
As all-around champions are known to do, Martyna shined in all four events throughout Friday’s individual prelims. She scored a 9.725 on the vault, which was tops in the field, hit 9.475 on the uneven bars, turn in a 9.275 on the beam and a scored a 9.45 on the floor.
Martyna’s all-around score was just ahead of Palmer Ridge’s Riley Marr, who finished with a 37.5. Standley Lake’s Tessa Grudle was third with a 37.125 and Madison Montoya of team champion Elizabeth was fourth with a 36.675.
“She’s amazing,” Green Mountain coach Taelore Fehr said. “We tried to get her in her freshman year. We tried again her senior year and we were so lucky we were able to. I think having her also pushed all the other girls. Our top girls before she came stepped up and we’ve got some qualifiers for tomorrow. I think it definitely helped our team dynamic and she just has the best attitude, so that helped also.”
On a night when Elizabeth won its third straight team title, Martyna’s all-around championship broke up a different potential three-peat, as she unseated two-time defending all-around champion Mia Curry of Niwot.