The Darien YMCA gymnastics team honored their former teammate by smiling their way through a sweep of the team titles from Levels 3 to 10 at the first annual Emily Fedorko Challenge. Coach Nicole Kapitan began each of the six meet sessions by reading an inspiring tribute to the memory of Emily Fedorko, who lost her life too early in a boating accident. Before the final session, Emily’s mother, Pam Fedorko addressed the gymnasts and families, thanking them for supporting the Emily Fedorko Foundation and encouraging everyone to smile and have fun as Emily would have done.
Gymnasts competed by level and age group. A highlight of the meet was an exhibition beam routine performance after each session by Darien Coach Daniela Andrei, a former Romanian national team member.
The youngest Darien gymnasts, competing in the Level 3 age 6-7 group, were Emily McKee, who placed second on floor, fourth on bars and third on all other events and All Around (AA) and Anastasia Buchesky, who was third on bars and fourth on vault, beam and AA.
In the 8s age group, Ellie Davies took second AA, sixth on vault, third on beam and fourth on bars and floor. Katie Cutler was the floor champ with 9.45, placed fifth on bars, fourth on beam, third AA and tied Sophie Root for seventh on vault. Root was the beam champ with 9.4 and also tied Elsa Del Bene for seventh on floor. Del Bene was also tenth on bars and vault. Stella Nehro placed ninth on beam and AA and eighth on all other events, including a tie with Regan Famigletti on vault. Famigletti was also second on beam, fifth on floor and tenth AA. Alexandra Kuras was fifth on vault, ninth on floor and tenth on beam while Katie Primmer placed sixth on floor.
Ava Licata continued her winning ways, topping the 9s group with 38.05 AA plus taking first on vault and floor, second on bars and tying Penelope Arredondo for third on floor. Arredondo was also fifth on vault, sixth on beam and fourth on bars and AA. Anna Altier was the champ on bars and floor with 9.65 and 9.6 and placed second on vault, AA and beam where she tied Sydney Berk. Berk also tied Annelise Enters for third on vault, tied Sophia Geffner for fourth on floor and was third on bars and AA. Enters was also second on floor, seventh on bars and beam and fifth AA. Geffner was also fifth on bars, eighth on vault and seventh AA. Lindy Mueller earned fifth on beam, seventh on floor and sixth on vault, bars and AA. Julia Holmes took fourth on beam, sixth on floor and eighth on bars.
Tanner Generoso led the 10 Junior (Jr) group, taking first AA and on beam with 9.7, as well as fourth on vault and third on bars and floor. Brianna Barrientos soared to the vault title with 9.7 and placed eighth on bars, sixth AA and fourth on beam and floor where she tied Alannah Morris. Morris was also fifth on vault and sixth on beam. Julia McKee was seventh on beam and tied Bowen Burns for fifth on floor. Burns was also eighth on vault. Abigail O’Brien was all-around awesome in the 10 Senior (Sr) group, winning the AA with a stunning 38.80 as well as the vault, floor and beam titles and placing second on bars.
In the 11s group, Kira McCreesh took third on bars, ninth on beam and second on all other events and AA. Ciara Bresnahan earned third on vault, fifth on bars and seventh on floor and eighth AA. Alexandra Decsi went six, seven, nine, nine, ten on beam, vault, AA, floor and bars respectively. Isabella Woodring took third on bars and fifth on floor while Theodora Tretiropoulos placed fourth on beam and tenth on vault and Carly Cambareri was fifth on vault and sixth on floor.
Competing in the 12 and up group, Amelia Kuhn took the floor title with 9.4 and swung to fourth on bars. Stephanie Carrillo won bars with 9.45, placed fifth on vault and tied Meredith Marra for third on beam. Marra was also third on bars and sixth on floor and AA.
Olivia Perkins led the champion Level 4 team, winning the AA in the 11 Sr group as well as taking the bars and beam titles with impressive scores of 9.75 and 9.9 and placing third on vault and floor. Sofia Imbrogno was solid for second on beam and floor, fifth AA and sixth on vault and bars.
In the 7-9 group, Julia Decsi was the beam champ with 9.65, placed fourth on floor, second AA and tied Ali Kolman for first on vault and third on bars. Kolman was also second on beam and fourth AA. Lauren Smith placed third on vault and floor and fourth on bars.
Alison Enters was the vault champ in the 12s group, took seventh on beam, third on bars, second on floor and fourth AA. Melanie Vernal was fifth on beam, fourth on floor and tied Maggie Russell for third on vault. Russell was also fifth on floor. In the 13 and up group, Nika Sibley was third on beam and fourth on vault, floor and AA.
Nadia Borja again led the Level 5 team champs, scoring 9.5 or above on all events while winning vault, beam and AA in the 9-11 group with 38.150 and tying Sofia DeStefano for first on bars. DeStefano was the floor champ with 9.65 and placed second on vault, beam and AA. Saskia Chermayeff ‘s magic number was three, as she placed third on bars and AA and tied three times: with Borja for second on floor and with Emma Kelly for third on vault and fifth on beam. Kelly was also fifth on bars and sixth on floor and AA. Abigail Nevin was third on beam, fourth on bars, fifth on floor and AA and tied Melina Cardini for sixth on vault. Cardini also tied Anna Moss for sixth on bars. Moss also earned third on floor while Audrey Ridder and Nima Rahbar were fourth and fifth on vault respectively.
Lucy Collins captured the vault and beam titles in the 12s group, plus third on bars and second on floor and AA. Emma Neaderland was fourth on bars and beam, fifth on floor and sixth on vault.
At Level 6 in the 9-11 group, Tori Ware took the top spot in the AA with 37.95 as well as first on vault and beam and second on bars and floor. Kate Wolters swung to 9.7 for first on bars and placed third on vault and floor and second on beam and AA. On vault, Paige Domenici took second and Sommer Schmidt was fourth.
Dillan Aysseh won the beam, floor (9.6) and AA titles in the 12s group and placed second on bars and third on vault. Lizzie Canelli was the vault champ as well as third on bars and second on floor and AA. Christina Pizzani topped the podium on bars, took second on vault and third on floor and AA while Lindsay Hall was third on beam.
In the 13 and up group, Kerry McDermott placed second on vault and bars, sixth on floor, third on beam and equaled the highest AA score but took second by virtue of a tiebreak. Sofia Fea flipped to the floor title with 9.7 and placed third on vault and AA, fifth on bars and second on beam. Lily Fairleigh was the beam champ with 9.45, as well as third on bars, seventh on floor and fourth on vault and AA.
Lana Schmidt led the Level 7 age 10-13 group, winning the floor, vault, beam and AA titles with 37.15 and placing second on bars. Allie Trotman swung to the bars title with 9.4, placed third on floor and second on vault, AA and beam where she tied Tess Keating.
In the 14-15 group, Jane Ogden was the AA champ, as well as first on vault and floor with 9.45 and 9.7 and placed second on beam. Kellie Arevalo was steady for first on beam and earned second on vault and fifth on bars and AA while Dorothy Browning took fourth on vault.
Gianna Cardini led the Level 8 Jr group, placing second on bars and floor, winning vault and AA with 37.35 and tying Juliana Jordao for the beam title. Jordao was also third on vault and fourth on floor and AA. Nikki Carlo was third on floor and second on vault, beam and AA. In the Senior group, Fiona Brock was the vault, bars and AA champ as well as second on beam and third on floor. Twin sister Aisling took the beam title with 9.2 and placed second on vault.
The three Darien Level 9 gymnasts took turns atop the podium, with Sam Aparicio winning the vault and AA titles, Kelsey Fedorko tops on beam and floor and Jessica Freiheit first on bars. Aparicio was also second on bars, beam and floor; Fedorko was third on bars, second AA and tied Freiheit for second on vault; and Freiheit took third on beam, floor and AA.
Once again the sole level 10 competitor, Adnerys De Jesus put on a show as she swept all events, soaring to 9.925 on vault and 38.225 AA. The team will next compete in the state and regional YMCA and USAG championship meets.