CENTRAL NEW YORK – A challenging week awaited the area’s pair of high school gymnastics teams, who each had to face the undefeated Whitesboro Warriors.
Going first, East Syracuse Minoa/Liverpool challenged Whitesboro last Tuesday night, and got fairly close, even as it lost a 136.55-129.45 decision.
Angelina Merulla had an all-around score of 33.5 to edge teammate Katie DiMillo’s 33.4. Merulla scored 9.1 on floor exercise and 8.6 on balance beam.
DiMillo, for her part, won the uneven bars with an 8.2 as Jenny Sun finished second in the vault with 8.25.
Whitesboro star Madison Scialdone took all-around honors with 35.9 helped by scoring 9.4 on the floor and 9.3 on the vault, while Kiara Khiamdavanh scored 9.3 on the beam.
When Jamesville-DeWitt/Fayetteville-Manlius got its turn against Whitesboro later in the week, it proved an extremely close meet, but the Warriors pulled it out by two points, 138.2-136.2.
Catherine Rizzo had an all-around score of 34.1 for J-D/F-M, with Katie DeStefano scoring 8.9 on the vault just behind the 9.0 from Whitesboro’s Payton Smith.
Charlotte Ford had a 9.1 on the floor to finish third, while Haydan McGinn got an 8.3 on uneven bars for third place. Khiamdavanh, on her way to an all-around total of 36.3, had a 9.45 on the beam, 9.4 on the floor and 9.15 on uneven bars to win all three apparatus.
When back on the mat last Saturday to face Baldwinsville, ESM/Liverpool held on for a 129.03-128.05 victory over the Bees.
On her way to an all-around victory with a score of 35.0, DiMillo tied B’ville’s Ava Wazen for first place on the floor, each scoring 8.6. And DiMillo got 8.9 on the beam and uneven bars, both times trailing the Bees’ Maddie Brooks, who had 9.3 on the beam and 9.1 on uneven bars.
Merullo had an all-around score of 32.6 and Jenny Sun 32.0, with Merulla earning an 8.3 on the vault to finish second behind DiMillo.
