When Oceanside native Dylan Benitez was little, her parents, Ron and Anne, remember her spending hours in the backyard climbing and swinging on makeshift bars, turning it into her own gym.
Now 13 and in seventh grade, Benitez trains 20 to 22 hours a week, five days a week, at Oceanside Gymnastics.
“Parents bring kids to the sport because they want them to learn how to fall in the backyard safely, or to stop climbing all over furniture at friends’ houses and recognize, ‘We need to put this to good use,’” said Reevon Bryan, the owner of Oceanside Gymnastics and Benitez’s vault and bars coach. “Coming in with the natural aptitude that she has is not as common.”
On March 21, at the Southern California State Championships at the San Diego Convention Center, Benitez secured a spot on the 12-member Level 8 SoCal State Team. Competing against 175 gymnasts, she placed second in her age division and seventh overall with an all-around score of 38.025.
“It feels like a privilege, and I’m very grateful to have this opportunity,” Benitez said. “My goal is to go to college gymnastics – ever since I started and began competing and seeing what I can actually do.”
“I am just so excited that her drive has gotten her this far,” Bryan added. “For us, it’s been a lot of trying to get her to slow down a little bit, because she’s always wanting more and more and more. The season has just been a result of her drive to get where she wants to.”
Benitez is the only gymnast from both San Diego and North County to make the Level 8 SoCal State Team this year.
“In a region as competitive and athletic as San Diego, Dylan’s achievement is a rare testament to local talent. To be the only gymnast representing our community on the SoCal State Team speaks volumes about her abilities and dedication,” said Charisma Davis, who, along with Krysta Hull, coaches Benitez in beam and floor at Oceanside Gymnastics.
Benitez posted scores of 9.500 on vault, 9.675 on bars, 9.300 on beam, and 9.550 on floor. Bryan said her strongest event is bars, while vault remains her biggest challenge.
“We all knew where her natural talent is: bars. We knew she was going to be successful on bars at every meet, placing second or third no matter how big the age group was,” Bryan said. “Vault has been her biggest struggle her entire career. It’s always been an event that terrified her, and this year her mission was to tackle it. At the state meet, she flipped her vault for the very first time and scored a 9.5. That’s a great way to come out of the gate.”
Placing on the state team blindsided Benitez.
“She didn’t even have any idea about the state team and was shocked when I told her she made it,” Bryan said. “Then she needed to know what it was, because her goal has always just been personal best. Personal best. Never like, ‘I need to be a part of that team.’”
Dad Ron Benitez called the moment his “Super Bowl.”
“We were like, hearts pounding,” he said. “Yeah, she’s in the final. We’re watching all the scores come up — all the girls are on bars. Then there were two girls after her. She scores a 9.7, and the last best girl scored a 9.65, and we just exploded. It was so exciting.”
“This is her passion,” Mom Anne Benitez added. “It’s a big commitment, and at 13 it’s like a part-time job, but she loves it. To see the reward be so big is just awesome. I think it was overwhelming to her — none of us really knew what it meant. We were all looking at the coaches like, ‘What just happened?’ It’s pretty cool because it’s such a big accomplishment.”
Benitez will now travel to Las Vegas, Nevada, April 10-12 to represent Southern California at the Region 1 Regional Championships, where she will face the top 12 qualifiers from Northern California, Nevada, and Arizona in a “best of the best” showdown.
“I’m a little bit nervous,” Benitez said. “But I’m mostly just excited to experience it and see what happens.”
