CENTRAL NEW YORK – Decision time arrived for area high school gymnasts as they gathered at Utica’s Valley Gymnastics Center for Friday’s Section III championship meet.
And three competitors from Jamesville-DeWitt/Fayetteville-Manlius – Antoinette Sakellariou, Katie DiStefano and Charlotte Ford – earned berths in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association meet to take place in March in suburban Buffalo.
Sakellariou had her big moment in the Level 1 balance beam, scoring 9.4 to finish third behind New Hartford’s Grayson Gall (9.7) and Whitesboro’s Kiara Khiamdavanh (9.55).
Also, Sakellariou tied teammate Aubrey Hughes for fifth on floor exercise, each getting 9.025 in an event also won by Gall with a 9.4 routine.
As for Ford, her score of 9.2 on the vault put her in fourth place, not far from the winning 9.4 by New Hartford’s Jayla Jordan, as DiStefano was sixth with 9.1.
On uneven bars, DiStefano scored 8.75, which put her in fifth place. Gall’s 9.5 was part of an all-around victory where her total of 37.875 beat out Madison Scranton’s 37.175.
Among Level 2 gymnasts, J-D/F-M’s Morgan Devine nearly claimed all-around honors, her 32.90 just behind the 32.95 from Utica Proctor’s Symone Coleman.
Devine netted an 8.9 on the floor and 8.65 on the beam, second in both apparatus to Proctor’s Elliana Curley, while her vault of 8.05 also put her in second to the 8.175 from Whitesboro’s Gianna Fiorini.
In the Level 3 competition, East Syracuse Minoa/Liverpool gymnasts Lindsay Davis and Ellie Mancini both registered top-three finishes.
Davis took second in the vault, her 8.0 topped by the 8.25 from Baldwinsville’s Sydney McKenney, while on the floor Mancini scored an 8.3 for third place behind McKenney (8.45) and Whitesboro’s Emma Fasolo, who won with 9.0.
Earlier in the week, J-D/F-M went head-to-head with Baldwinsville and prevailed 130.15-123.7 over the Bees.
Sakellariou won the uneven bars with 8.9 to Catherine Rizzo’s 8.4 and tied Rizzo for first on the beam, both scoring 8.8, while Sakellariou’s 8.2. on the vault equaled McKenney ahead of Rizzo (8.15) and Haydan McGinn (8.1).
On the floor, Sakellariou earned yet another tie for first place, this time with McKenney, both finishing with 8.4 and Rizzo close behind at 8.2.
