SCATS Dominates Meet With Philippine Team : Gymnastics: Club takes top three all-around spots in dual meet.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  The race to get here was in question, but the result of the meet never was.

SCATS Gymnastics, which played host to a dual meet with the Philippine national team Saturday night, easily handled the visitors 184.975 to 176.50.

The top three all-around honors went to SCATS gymnasts. Katie Antolin, with 37.635 points, won the meet, dubbed the Surf City International, with teammates Amy Young (37.175) and Debra Mink (36.575) placing second and third.

In a meet the SCATS dominated, the top all-around finish by a Philippine gymnast was Jasmin Valenton, who was fourth with 36.05 points. Valenton, with a tie for third in the balance beam and a second in the floor exercise, was the only visiting gymnast to finish in the top three in an individual event.

That the Philippine team made it here at all required tremendous flexibility.

To prepare for its upcoming Elite season, SCATS Coach Don Peters issued an open invitation to competitors several months ago.

The Philippine team was preparing to defend its first-ever title at the Southeast Asian Games--which it won in 1991--and jumped at the chance for some first-rate competition before next month’s games in Singapore.

Unfortunately, the team’s government wasn’t as enthusiastic.

“Photo finish,” was how Coach Lisa Pou described the close call in getting to Southern California from Manila.

The team was scheduled to leave the Philippines at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, but airport officials had to hold the plane until 8:50, when the team’s visas arrived.

“They were a little jet-lagged and a little jittery,” Pou said of her team. “We wanted this meet to wake them up, jolt them. We wanted them to make all their mistakes here.”

In contrast with the SCATS, there were many. The Huntington Beach-based team had a few problems throughout the night, but were steadier and had more difficulty in their routines, which was reflected in the scoring.

In only her second meet in two years, Antolin shined. She took seconds in the vault and uneven bars and won the beam with no major breaks. She fell on her second double back on the floor but scored high enough to stay ahead of Young, who also had some problems.

“I wasn’t expecting to win,” said Antolin, 13, who recorded the highest all-around score of her career.