The Tumbleweeds Gymnastics boys' competive team wrapped up its 2010 season by claiming two state championships in the all-around and sending its largest-ever contigent to the regional championships in San Diego.
Tumbleweeds had six boys qualify for the USAG Men's Region 1 Championships, which encompasses all gyms from Northern and Southern California, Hawaii, Arizona and Nevada, and produced its first regional gold medalist in Casey Tara, who won the pommel horse.
Tara, a junior at South Tahoe High School, also took a silver medal in the high bar and won bronze in the all-around at regionals, just a half-point off of the gold medal for the Level 9 division.
"Pommel has always been my best event," Tara said. "But, it was the last event of the meet. I was worried I'd be tired at the end, but I just hit it and it worked out."
Tumbleweeds also sent Level 9 Matt Vane, level 8s Malik DePasquale and Mason Parodi and Level 5s Branden Basche and Jarrod Pieller to regionals.
DePasquale was a silver medalist in the vault and took eighth out of 33 athletes in the all-around competition.
Pieller took fourth on the vault out of 34 athletes and Basche was fifth on vault and fifth on high bar out of 28 athletes.
The strong showing at regionals came on the heels of a downright dominating showing at the Nevada State Championships at Las Vegas.
Tara, who is hoping to haul in a college scholarship after next season, won the state all-around with additional gold medals in the pommel horse, the vault, the parallel bars and the high bar. He also took silver in the floor exercise and rings.
Vane was the state gold medalist in the floor and the rings, completing a perfect sweep of the Level 9 event.
At Level 8, DePasquale won one silver and five bronze medals on his way to bronze medal honors in the all-around. Parodi was the gold medalist in the vault and took all-around bronze in the 10-13 age group to go with three other bronze medals.
Basche won the state all-around title at Level 5, due to his consistency across the board. He won gold in the floor exercise, bronze in the high bar and and silvers in the vault and parellel bars despite a nagging shoulder injury.
"I peeled off on the high bar and hurt my shoulder on the high bar, but when I did the floor exercise and won, I started thinking I might have a shot at winning the all-around," Basche said. "I thought I had a chance to make it to regionals coming in, but I didn't know I could win. I was really surprised."
Also at Level 5, Cole Petrosky took bronze on the high bar and fifth in the all-around. Pieller took silver on the pommel horse, gold on rings and fourth in the all-around. Keaton Peters posted top 10 finishes in each event.
Level 4 Aidan Cantwell won a state championship on the vault and took fourth in the all-around.
In total, the team won 12 gold medals, 12 silver medals and 10 bronze medals at the state championships.
Anyone interested in competing with the Tumbleweeds team in the upcoming season can contact the gym at 782-4496.
