They didn’t have an individual event winner or second-place finisher and not even a top five all-arounder.
Yet, the Yorktown Patriots were good enough to win the Liberty District girls gymnastics championships for the first time since 2016, in what was the tightest competition in the history of the high-school event.
Yorktown won with a 138.675 point total, with the host Washington-Liberty Generals a close second with 138.275, followed by the Marshall Statesmen in third (138.15) and the defending champion Langley Saxons (136.7) and the McLean Highlanders (136.5).
“It was a finger-biter from beginning until end with the top three, even the top five teams, all so close,” W-L coach Joe D’Emidio said. “It’s one fall or bobble that made the difference between winning or finishing second or third. It was that close of a matchup.”
D’Emidio said the key to Yorktown’s victory was its overall depth.
Multiple gymnasts scored in the four events, led by Lia Musser. She was 10th in the all-around with a 34.275 total, with her top finish of seventh on the uneven bars (8.55).
Yorktown’s Olivia Hejl had the team’s highest finish on an event with a third on the bars (8.85). She was 11th with an 8.7 floor-exercise score.
Natalie Good was sixth on the vault (9.15) and 18th on the bars, Maya Mandelur was sixth on the balance beam (8.925), Avery Stoker was seventh on the beam (8.75), Cady Anderson Garbow was seventh on the floor (8.25) and tied for ninth on the bars (8.4), Anya Clemmer was ninth on the beam (8.7) and tied for 14th on the bars, Nathalia Colque tied for 10th on the vault and Madison Mastrongelo had top-20 finishes on all four routines. Clara Kresse and Olivia Juergens were other scorers for Yorktown.
Washington-Liberty had the all-around champion in junior Noki Din with a 36.225 score. She won the bars (9.35) and was third on the floor (9.025) and tied for third on the vault (9.4).
Din had a fall on the beam and was 14th (8.45).
Mara Gerardi was ninth in the all-around for W-L with a 34.575 score. Her highest finish was fifth on the beam (8.975) and she tied for ninth on the bars (8.4).
Lulu Ax was third on the bars (8.9) for W-L. Other top scorers for the Generals were Abby Hogan and Ella Bomberger.
The Wakefield Warriors placed sixth in the team competition with a 127.95 score. Leading the team was Madeline Wearing’s fifth in the all-around (35.15). She was second in the beam (9.25) and vault (9.45) and tied for seventh on the floor (8.25).
Grace Broughman, Sasha Escado and Sofie Vazquez were other top Wakefield performers.
Next for Yorktown and Washington-Liberty will be the 6D North Region championship meet, also hosted by this week.
“We had our highest team score this season, so we are excited to move on to the region,” D’Emidio said.
