The Darien YMCA gymnastics team recently competed at the YMCA National Gymnastics Championships meet in Tampa, Fl. More than 2000 gymnasts from across the nation marched in the opening ceremony at Tampa Bay Buccaneers stadium before the competition began. In addition, senior gymnasts Christina Brandt, Hayley Holzinger, Alissa Chan, Stephanie Klokiw and Lauren Fusek were honored for completing their YMCA gymnastics careers at the Senior Recognition Ceremony.
Teams competed for awards only in Level 8 and the Championship level. The Darien team performed extremely well, placing 9th in the Level 8 team competition and 6th in the Championship Level (9 and 10).
At the National meet, Level 8 gymnasts compete in a preliminary session to determine finalists for the overall All-Around (AA) competition. Individual event awards were given for each session. Darien gymnasts Samantha Aparicio and Jessica Freiheit both qualified for the finals, where Aparicio placed 3rd in the AA and Freiheit 11th. In the preliminary session, Aparicio placed 2nd on vault and beam, 3rd on bars and 4th on floor. Freiheit was 2nd on bars and 4th on vault. Samantha Gunn placed 7th on bars, while Perri Mirabile was 3rd on vault and 6th on beam.
Championship Level gymnasts also competed in preliminary sessions for both AA and individual events. All three Darien gymnasts qualified for the AA finals, with Stephanie Klokiw placing 14th, Hayley Holzinger 15th and Alissa Chan 21st. Klokiw also qualified for the vault and floor finals, placing 8th and 7th respectively.
Darien was also represented at Levels 3-7 where gymnasts competed in multiple sessions by level and age group. The Level 3 team was led by Gabriela Pye who won the AA with a score of 36.4 for the youngest age group in the session. Gabriela also placed 2nd on beam and bars, 4th on vault and 5th on floor. Twin sister Caterina Pye placed 2nd AA and won the vault and beam titles with scores of 9.55 and 9.15. Nima Rahbar completed the AA sweep of the top spots, placing 3rd AA and on vault, 2nd on floor, 5th on bars and 6th on beam. Melina Cardini placed 4th on beam, 7th on floor and 6th AA. Emma Kelly tied with Gabriela for 2nd on beam. In the middle age group, Lucy Collins placed 2nd AA and on vault, 3rd on beam and floor and 4th on bars. Megan Mitchell was 4th AA and on floor, 2nd on beam and 5th on vault. Jane Tortorella was 6th on beam and floor and 7th AA. Alison Enters was 7th on bars, while Olivia Stemp took 7th on beam. Melanie Vernal placed 6th on vault. Also competing for Darien were Audrey Ridder and Sophia Imbrogno.
At Level 5, Sydney Steele placed 6th on beam in the younger age group. Lana Schmidt was 4th in the AA and on beam, bars and floor in the older group. Tess Keating placed 6th on beam. Also competing at Level 5 were Dorothy Browning, Maeve Degulis, Stella Kamensky and Octavia Molkenthin.
Three gymnasts represented Darien at Level 6. In the junior group, Juliana Jordao placed 4th on beam and 5th on floor. In the senior group, Sarah Petti won the bars title with a score of 8.95. Lauren Fusek also competed for Darien in her final YMCA meet.
Gianna Cardini led the Darien trio competing at Level 7, placing 5th AA in the junior group, as well as 2nd on floor and 3rd on beam. Kajsa Lundeen placed 6th on beam in the senior group, where Toni Cardini also represented Darien. The Darien team was coached by Vladimir and Valentina Kovalenko, Yury Vasilyev, John Schwartz and Erin Hunter.