PG West: District athletes excel, win medals at WPIAL gymnastics championships
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Moon Area High School gymnastics coach Amy Caprino remembers when 27 schools from the WPIAL competed in the sport.
"That was in 1980 when [former athletic director] Rip Scherer hired me," said Caprino, who coached the Tigers to a second-place finish with 143.049 points in the seven-team WPIAL championships last Saturday at Moon Middle School.
"We're just trying to keep the sport alive."
The Tigers placed two gymnasts in the all-around standings in the Advanced Division competition with junior Crystal Maxin placing eighth with 35.916 points and Courtney Benard one place behind with 35.842 points.
Casey Benard, competing just six weeks after injuring a medial collateral ligament in her knee, successfully defended her WPIAL title in Intermediate II vault, while teammates freshman Kara DiNofrio and sophomore Abby Shriver won the vault and floor exercise, respectively, in Intermediate I.
Caprino is optimistic about the team's future as it heads into the season's final two meets -- the individual state championship this weekend followed by the team state championship a week later.
"We're going to lose four seniors, and we'll miss them," she said of the Benards, Taylor Furtado and Abbey Guzek.
"With the competitors [we have] returning, none of them have peaked."
Often, a team championship rides on the balance beam. Maxin, Moon's top finisher in that event, placed 10th.
Team champion North Allegheny, conversely, swept the top three positions in the Advanced field.
Caprino allowed, though, that some of her competitors are multi-sport athletes.
"Some of the athletes in other programs compete in gymnastics year-round with clubs. We encourage our athletes to try other things," she said.
Of the seven high schools to field complete teams at the meet, four were from the PG West area and two -- Center and Hopewell -- were coached by Terri Gazda. She also had individual competitors entered from 10 other schools in Allegheny and Beaver counties.
First Published February 25, 2010 12:00 am
