Even at less than full strength, and even with several challengers poised to topple them, the Jamesville-DeWitt/F-M girls gymnastics held on to the Section III large school team championship.
Inside the CNY Gymnastics Center at Shoppingtown Mall on Friday, Central New York’s top high school gymnasts, including those from J-D/F-M and East Syracuse-Minoa Liverpool, battled for top honors in the sectional meet.
And when all was settled, J-D/F-M had 134.55 points, edging out Utica Proctor (132.00 points) for that top spot, though it settled for second place overall behind small-school champion Whitesboro and its total of 138.175 points.
Taylor Fishkin was the only local gymnast to qualify for the state meet. Fishkin produced 35.875 all-around points, finishing third on the vault with 9.0 and third on the uneven bars with 8.9, adding another 8.9 on balance beam and 9.025 on floor exercise, beating out teammate Ana Dieroff (8.95) in that category.
As a result, Fishkin joins seven other gymnasts heading to Kenmore West High School in suburban Buffalo late in February.
They include three from New Hartford (Kennedy Massoud, Jensen Todd and Kameron Karkowski), three from Whitesboro (Tiffany Khiamdavanh, Emma McQueen and Taylor Bushey), one from J-D/F-M (Taylor Fishkin) and one from Rome Free Academy (Jenna Zakala), as Todd won the sectional all-around title with 37.425 points.
Ana Dieroff had 8.95 on the vault at Level 1, while in Level 2 J-D/F-M’s Mika Sajnog managed an 8.45 on the beam behind ESM/Liverpool’s Alyssa Penizotto, who was second with an 8.9 routine behind McQueen’s 9.05.
Amy Fox won the Level 3 all-around event with 31.575 points, ahead of teammate Francesca Femia in third place (29.0 points) and ESM/Liverpool’s Jordan Winans (26.9 points) in sixth place.
Fox won both the floor (8.45) and uneven bars (7.25). Femia edged Fox, 8.1 to 8.0, on the vault, with Rishma Vora also scoring 8.0 and Jenny Newman adding 7.95. On the floor, Femia had a 7.25, while Rachel Wells put up 8.0 on the beam, ahead of Fox (7.9), Vora and Jillian Byrne (7.8).
