Ellington/Tolland edge Warde, win first title

MILFORD — The Class M gymnastics state championship has been dominated in recent years by a handful of familiar suspects, but on Saturday a new team was crowned champion.

Ellington/Tolland, in its first year as a co-op, took home gold for the first championship won by Ellington or Tolland in program history.

“We knew we were going to be up towards the top,” Ellington/Tolland coach Kali Tyler said. “But we weren’t sure we were going to win, so it was a big surprise.”

Seemingly out of nowhere in relation to previous seasons, Ellington/ Tolland sprang to the top of the scoring charts with a team score of 142.575, outscoring last year’s runner up, Fairfield Warde (138.1) and last year’s winner and defending State Open champion, Woodstock Academy (137.45).

Tyler had coached the Ellington team for the last four seasons, but has found immense success in the first year of the partnership with Tolland.

“Honestly we just wanted to keep the energy high,” Senior captain Natalie Marshall said. “We weren’t expecting perfection, we just wanted to come in here and do what we always do, and hope that was enough.”

Ellington/Tolland was led by the performances of Charlotte Pacheco, Kaitlyn Delaney and Marshall.

“Natalie Marshall had probably one of her best meets of the season,” Tyler said. “Then Kaitlyn (Delaney) and Charlotte (Pacheco) pulled through awesome. Ella (Bojarski) had a great meet and Ava (Culhane), our other captain, probably had one of her best meets of the year too.”

Pacheco scored over nine in each of the four events, earning 9.075 on vault, 9.0 on uneven bars, 9.4 in balance beam and 9.175 in her floor routine. Delaney scored over nine in both the vault (9.35) and floor (9.15), while Marshall earned over a nine in vault (9.125), balance beam (9.4) and floor (9.5).

All together, Ellington/ Tolland ranked first in uneven bars, balance beam and floor. Fairfield Warde had the highest team score in vault.

“It is crazy, I love these girls so much,” Marshall said. “They are the whole reason that they I am able to do as well as I can, and our coaches are just great.”

Emma C Johnson of Fairfield Warde was perhaps the meet’s top performer, scoring a 9.35 in vault, 9.15 in uneven bars, 9.55 in balance beam and 9.45 in the floor routine.