Tonry has coached the Yale women's gymnastics team since its inception in 1973 and is currently the longest-tenured coach in NCAA gymnastics. Her teams have captured 16 Ivy Classic championships. That includes the most recent Ivy Classic, 2019, as part of a season in which the team made 39 additions to the school’s top 10 performance lists.
In 2017 and 2018 Tonry led the Bulldogs to back-to-back Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) championships -- the first in school history. She was named ECAC Coach of the Year in 2017 and USAG Collegiate National Head Coach of the Year in 2018.
Yale’s gymnasts have achieved great individual success under Tonry. She has coached 23 ECAC champions and 92 Ivy champions. A dozen of her student-athletes have earned Academic All-Ivy League honors.
The 1987 NCAA Eastern Region's co-Coach of the Year, Tonry has one of the finest athletic backgrounds of any coach. She is a member of the U.S. Gymnastics Federation Hall of Fame, the National Tumbling and Trampoline Hall of Fame and the Texas Hall of Fame. Her all-around gymnastics talents won her a spot on the 1964 U.S. Olympic training squad and earned her All-America honors 10 times.
Tonry has served on numerous gymnastics committees, including the National Association for Intercollegiate Gymnastics and the U.S. Gymnastics Federation Hall of Fame Selection Committee. Her resume also includes a Texas mixed doubles tennis championship and a Texas AAU 3-meter diving title. In addition, she was twice named a finalist (1954, 1958) for the prestigious Sullivan Award, presented each year to the nation's top amateur athlete.
In 1994, Tonry was presented with the Texas Heritage Award. She and her late husband, Don, a former Olympian and NCAA champion gymnast, wrote the Sports Illustrated Guide to Gymnastics. She is a 1961 graduate of North Texas and holds a master's degree from Southern Connecticut.
