Area high school gymnastics teams finished the month of September by competing for a good cause.

On Sept. 30, Jamesville-DeWitt/Fayetteville-Manlius and East Syracuse Minoa/Liverpool ventured to Valley Gymnastics in Utica for the fifth annual “Flip For A Cure” event, promoting breast cancer awareness.

In all, more than $1,000 was raised, and the event also served as a qualifier for the Section III championships to take place late in October.

Once that was done, it was back to head-to-head competition as ESM/Liverpool took on New Hartford last Monday and lost a narrow 130.6-130.5 decision to that other group of Spartans.

Devin Myers did score 9.45 on the vault and Ashlyn Fuller had a 9.0 on uneven bars for ESM/Liverpool, and the team’s depth allowed it to nearly overcome New Hartford’s top individual efforts.

In particular, Miranda Smith dazzled for New Hartford with 38.1 all-around points that included a 9.75 on balance beam, 9.6 on the vault, 9.55 on uneven bars and 9.2 on floor exercise. Madelyn Massoud (36.2 points) and Kennedy Massoud (36.1 points) were close behind, Madelyn score 9.65 on the vault.

ESM/Liverpool improved on that team score when it took on Rome Free Academy two nights later, with the Spartans defeating the Black Knights 134.25-101.00.

Fuller led the way with an all-around score of 35.6, going 9.0 on the beam, winning the uneven bars with 8.8 and the floor with 8.7 while also executing an 8.5 vault.

On her way to an all-around score of 33.8, Delia Korszeniewski had a 9.4 beam routine, plus an 8.6 on the floor and 8.2 on uneven bars. Myers won the vault with a 9.1 and went 8.0 on uneven bars as Madeline Crooke was third on the beam (8.6), floor (8.35) and vault, where she scored 8.1.

Meanwhile, J-D/F-M took part in a memorable meet against Whitesboro, which featured a great individual battle between Taylor Fishkin and the Warriors’ Taylor Bushey.

Fishkin scored a 9.55 to win the vault, went 9.4 on uneven bars, had a 9.3 beam routine and 9.1 floor routine to finish with 37.35, which would have won nearly every other all-around high school competition.

However, Bushey would finish with 37.75, going 9.5 on uneven bars and beam, 9.3 on the floor and 9.45 on the vault as Whitesboro prevailed 142.05-140.7 on the team side.