Local gymnasts excel at state-qualifying competition

FLORIDA — The Sports Fitness and Fun Gymnastics Team (SFFGT) held it’s annual Florida in February Invitational Gymnastics Competition on Feb. 21 and 22, hosted by the Orange County Sports Club (OCSC) in Florida. Nearly 350 gymnasts competed from the United Stated Gymnastics Association (USAG) and United States Independent Gymnastics Club (USAIGC) teams, 68 of them from the Sports Fitness and Fun team. This was a New York State-qualifying event. Nineteen teams from New York, New Jersey and Texas competed.

Local results Level 3 SFFGT has eight Level 3 gymnasts who competed for the first time at the home meet. The new Level 3 gymnasts are Anastasia Albornoz of Westtown, Lilliana Coe of Milford, Pa., Johannah Bradley, Lillybeth Kurosz, Julie Ramos and Rachel Venter all of Warwick, Lissenda Sutton of Walden and Elizabeth Sorce of Harriman.

Elizabeth placed second on the balance beam and Anastasia finishing third place in vault.

First place All Around Level 3 gymnasts included Hannah Cann of Warwick and Kennedy Fisher of Pine Bush in their respective age groups. This led the way to a first place team recognition.

Level 4
The Level 4 gymnasts had equal success with a first place team award. Leading the way for the 9-year-old age group were Ella Galloway of Middletown, Lainey Ferrante and Stephanie Koblish, both of Chester, finishing with first, second and third respectively. The 10-11 year olds also held the top three positions by Elizabeth Pisello of Monroe, Stephanie Kwong of Chester and Victoria Skrynyk of Monroe.

Level 7
The home team Level 7 gymnasts aged 11 and 12 held the top three positions led by Deanna Sheremeta of Bloomingburg, Kayla Barca of Vernon, N.J., and Courtney West of Warwick. Deanna was also achieved the highest score of all 349 competitors with an All-Around score of 38.50 out of a perfect score of 40. In the 14-year and older group, Jessica Bessler finished second. Their level also earned a first place designation.

Level 8
Emma Berntsen of Chester, Madison Kipp of Slate Hill and Madison Yager of Middletown all finished in first place in their respective Level 8 aged groups.

Platinum Level
The highest level of USAIGC, Platinum, was won by SFFGT’s own Kayla Rimpici of Goshen.

Gold Level
The USAIGC Gold team members of Emily Gorczynski of Washingtonville, Kiley Fred of Highland Mills and Bella Voelker of Monroe finished in second, third and fourth place respectively.

Copper Level
First place Copper finishers in their age groups included Grace Schug of New Windsor, Tyler Jurain of Washingtonville and Giuliana Vinces of Middletown. Leah Golding of Pine Bush and Mackenzie Jurain of Washingtonville finished in second and third places to help lead their team to a first place banner.

Bronze Level
Claire Coyle of Hewitt, N.J., and Annabelle Alpar of Monroe led the Bronze Level with a first and second place finish.

Up nextThe next home competition at Orange County Sports Club will include gymnasts preparing for the state championships at the SFFGT “Get Ready for States” meet, which is being held the weekend of March 27-29.

For more than 12 years OCSC, formerly Sports Fitness and Fun, has established an extremely completive program that is attended by young women from throughout the lower Hudson River Valley and beyond. Gymnastics training begins generally at age 5 or 6, with practices of four hours per week, with the higher levels committing up to 30 hours per week as gymnasts progress to the pre-Olympic or college levels. Currently there are 83 gymnasts in the program. The training program encompasses all four women's events, vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. SFFGT gymnasts have qualified for state, regional, national and world competitions over the years with several medaling at each of these venues.

Orange County Sports Club is located at 1743 State Route 17A in Florida. For more information, call 845-651-1000.