SMA hosted league championships this past Friday and placed third
Altoona won the league title with a 144.875, followed by runner-up DuBois with a 130.7. St. Marys (128.625) was third, followed by Waynesboro (123.675) and Ridgway (108.100). League member Bellefonte was unable to attend the league championships this year.
The top 10 places were awarded on each event and in the allaround.
St. Marys’ Maddy Wittman, Ava Villella and Jianna Gerg all placed in the top 10 in the all-around. Wittman got sixth in the all-around with a 33.100, while Villella was right behind her in seventh (32.925) and Gerg took 10th in the all-around with a 30.175.
Wittman also had St. Marys’ best individual finish, placing fifth on the vault (8.725). She also took home ribbons for a seventh on beam (8.350) and eighth on floor (8.700). She also was 12th on bars (7.350).
As for Villella, she collected ribbons for a sixth on vault (8.600) and ninth on beam (8.275) and floor (8.625). She just missed a fourth podium finish on bars, coming in 11th with a 7.425.
St. Marys had two other podium finishes on vault by Becca Gnan (eighth, 8.525) and Adyson Azzato (ninth, 8.500), while Azzato also was eighth on bars (7.850).
The Lady Dutch also got top 15 finishes by Gerg (13th on vault, 8.325) and Sydney Smith (14th on beam, 7.400).
St. Marys knew that going into this meet they needed to be “on” and ready to hit their routines. Our team was not at top notch on bars or beam which led us to fall into third place. But regardless the girls still came out strong and gave all they had on the other two events. They didn’t give up. The DuBois team was on and they hit their routines which led them into the second place spot.
All the Central Penn League teams will now be preparing this week to compete in the PA Classic — gymnastics’ version of the state championships — on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 16-17) at Moon Township Area High School.
The SMA team has several of their girls qualified individually -- Maddy Wittman as an all-around in the gold division; Ava Villella, Adyson Azzato and Jianna Gerg allarounds in the silver division; Becca Gnan on vault, beam, and floor in the silver division; and qualified in the bronze division, Sydney Smith on vault and beam, Lili Chmelar on floor and Rachelle Fritz on vault.
In the state team championship in the silver division, SMA (seeded second) will face off against Hopewell (seeded first), Bellefonte (third), DuBois (fourth), Thomas Jefferson
(fifth) and Waynesboro (sixth). The competition among all these teams is going to be close and it is going to come down to who is “on” that day. It will surely be an exciting meet.