As in seasons past, the Section III girls gymnastics championships took place at CNY Gymnastics Centre at Shoppingtown, giving the teams from Jamesville-DeWitt/F-M and East Syracuse Minoa/Liverpool something close to a home meet.
And it was J-D/F-M emerging as the team champion in the Large School division with 142.90 points, easily outdistancing ESM/Liverpool, who with 125.30 points edged Baldwinsville (125.25 points) for the runner-up spot.
Also at stake was berths in March’s state championship meet at Cold Spring Harbor High School on Long Island, and seven area gymnasts qualified, including six from J-D/F-M, led by Taylor Fishkin, whose all-around total of 37.05 points got her in third place in Level 1 behind New Hartford teammates Miranda Smith (38.675 points) and Jensen Todd (38.10 points).
Fishkin’s best score was on floor exercise, where her 9.35 routine put her in third place, again with Todd and Smith ahead of her. It was the same on the vault, where Fishkin got third place with 9.3 as she also took fourth place on uneven bars with a 9.125.
Another J-D/F-M gymnast, Keeley Riley, advanced to the state meet by finishing fifth on both uneven bars (8.95) and vault (8.8), while Ana Dieroff, with a 9.1 on the floor, qualified, too. So did ESM/Liverpool’s Alyssa Penizotto after a 9.25 balance beam routine put her in fifth place.
Moving to Level 2, J-D/F-M teammates Mia Potamianos (34.575 points) and Rylee Fishkin (34.45 points) went 1-2 in the all-around standings to earn berths in the state meet, while ESM/Liverpool’s Delia Korseniewski was fourth (33.475 points) and J-D/F-M’s Mika Sajnog (31.35 points) got sixth place.
In ths division, Potamianos won the vault with 9.225 and the uneven bars with 8.25. Fishkin won the beam with a 9.3 and the floor with a 9.1 to edge Potamianos (9.0) while getting third place in the vault (8.25) and uneven bears (7.65). Sajnog and teammate Rachel McKean both scored 8.45 on the beam, with Nina Avery scoring 8.35.
As for Korseniewski, she had top-five finishes in all four events, getting second place on the beam (9.0) behind Rylee Fishkin while taking fourth place on the floor (8.875), fifth place on uneven bars (7,35) and sixth place on the vault (8.25). Korsniewski’s teammate, Maddie Crooke, had an 8.7 floor routine.
Finally, in the Level 3 sectional competition, ESM/Liverpool’s Kaitlyn Hayduk scored 8.2 on the vault for second place behind Whitesboro’s Gianna Desantis (8.3). J-D/F-M’s Rhisma Vora had a 7.95 on the beam and was second to B’ville’s Lauren McIlroy (8.0) as Wren Usiantynski (29.1 points) edge Natalie Goodson (28.925 points) in the all-around standings.
Before all this, Taylor Fishkin would lead J-D/F-M past ESM/Liverpool 143.7-111.4 in last Tuesday’s head-to-head meet.
Fishkin was again at the forefront as she finished with 38.0 all-around points, just two points short of perfection. Winning every individual apparatus, Fishkin went 9.5 on the vault, and no one else topped 9.0.
It was the same on uneven bars, where Fishkin scored 9.4, while on balance beam Fishkin’s 9.5 routine edged Dieroff’s 9.4 and Rachel Wells’ 9.2. Finally, on floor exercise, Taylor Fishkin put together her best score yet, a 9.6, which was enough to beat Rylee Fishkin’s 9.35, the best score of her 33.95 all-around effort. Wells added a 9.2.
Riley was second in the all-around standings with 34.3 points, finishing second on uneven bars with an 8.7 and third on the vault with 8.9, Potamianos recorded a second-place vault of 8.95 as Payton Riley scored 7.9 on uneven bars.
