Local gymnasts off to hot start

Even in the first meet of a new year, competing with mostly brand-new routines, the Tumbleweeds Gymnastics competition teams continued to build on its success from recent years.

The Tumbleweeds level 4, 5 and 6 girls teams swept the first-place team trophies at the EyeOpener at High Sierra Gymnastics earlier this month while the boys' level 4 team took third.

Each team also had a number of first-place individual winners, including five all-around winners.

"It's very exciting as a coach when your athletes bring to the meet the best they are capable of," girls' coach Shamra Petrosky said. "Everybody was on, everyone performed at or above the level I see them at practice.

"Sometimes when you get to a meet, nerves take over or you just have an off day but everybody was relaxed, ready and prepared. It was a dream come true to take first in all levels."

The boys' team was equally pleased.

"We ended up doing really well, even though we were learning all new routines this year," boys' coach Tony Parodi said. "We're excited to see how they improve as the year goes on.

"The third-place team award was pretty neat, because we only have three level 4s and they take the top three scores to count toward the team standings. The other teams all had seven or eight guys, so our guys really had to nail their routines in order to bring home that award. It was pretty neat to see."

Individually, Baylee Robinson won the level 6 all-around with a pair of firsts and seconds in the apparatus events as well. Casey Connolly swept all of her events and took first in the level 5, age 10-over all-around. Kailey Jacobs took first in the all-around and scored a 9.050 on the beam in the level 5, 8-9 division.

Malik DePasquale took three first places and won the all-around in the level 6, age 11-over division and Zennon Chatwin won the level 4, ages 5-6 all-around while winning four of his events.

The remainder of the boys' team was impressive as well, with Mason Parodi taking fifth in the all-around and winning the vault in the level 6, age 11-over division and Cole Petrosky winning the pommel horse in the level 5, age 8-9 division.

Mowgli McKeon took second in the level 4, age 7 all-around with a trio of thirds in the pommel, vault and parellel bars.

Jarod Pieller took third in the level 4, age 8-9 all-around and finished second in the pommel horse.

Branden Basche took fifth in the level 5, age 10-over division and Keaton Peters took eighth in the all-around in the level 5, age 10-over division.

For the girls, Aryana Petrosky took fourth in the level 6 all-around and Katarina Vondruska was sixth in the level 6s.

In level 5, Talyn Jackson took second in the all-around for the 8-9-year-olds and Caroline Gabica took second in the all-around for the 10-over division.

Emma Morgan was fourth in the all-around, Leah Frankiewich was fifth in the all-around and scored a 9.0 on the vault and Maizey Parodi was sixth in the all-around.

In the level 4s, Bella Brucketta took first on the beam and third in the all-around.

Samantha Berger took second on the floor and the vault and fourth in the all-around.

Lauryn DelPrete scored a 9.2 on the vault and took seventh in the all-around.

Mackenzie Robinson scored a 9.05 on the vault and was eighth in the all-around.

Julie Munoz took ninth in the all-around and scored an 8.5 on the vault.

Kori Dunning, the youngest member on the team at 6 years old, took three seventh places and scored a 9.0 on the vault.

Corley Jo Raper scored an 8.9 on the vault and took 11th in the all-around and Bryanna McKeon competed for the team as well.

In the 9-over division, Haylee Krupp took second in the all-around and scored a 9.0 on floor. Torreyana Sanguinetti had a pair of 9.150 scores on the vault and the beam. She was first on the beam and third in the all-around.

Hunter Celio was seventh in the all-around and scored a 9.1 on the vault.