Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Turners boast six state champions

By EMERY SKOLFIELD
Published December 24, 2006

Point-oh-seven-five, as in .075. That was the sliver-like margin by which the Tampa Bay Turners captured the large team title at the USA Gymnastics Florida Level 4 State Championships on Dec. 9-10 at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach.

For the St. Petersburg-based Turners, it marked the end of a magical year. With their Level 4 title, the Turners are the state champs at Levels 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. They are only the second club to accomplish such a feat - the Fort Lauderdale American Twisters did it in 1991.

LaFleur's of Largo finished with 116.025 team points at the Level 4 state meet, barely behind the Turners' 116.100 aggregate score. Bayside Gymnastics Clearwater finished 10th, and Victory Gymnastics (Oldsmar) was 12th in the 26-team large-team field.

On their way to an incredibly narrow victory, the Level 4 Turners captured 10 all-around individual titles. Ariel Cardine, Melissa Morgan and Julia Cooper each won all four disciplines to capture all-around championships. The remaining all-around winners for the Turners were: Charity Chen, who won the bars, beam and floor; Jessica Beltran (bars, beam, floor); Hanna Mixson (bars, floor); Olivia Kent (bars, beam); Hannah Everson-Sagi (vault, bars); Megan Freedman (bars, floor); and Makayla Adams (bars, beam).

LaFleur's of Largo boasted eight all-around champions: Maranda Adams (vault, bars, floor), Madeline Cappelli (floor), Chelsea Davis (bars, floor), Hannah Foster (vault, beam), Kylie Halbert (beam), Cassidy Marks (vault, bars, floor), Natalie Morrison (vault, beam, floor) and Stella Sardo (vault, bars, floor).

Bayside's Victoria Greco won her age group all-around with victories on the bars, beam and floor. Greco's score on the bars (9.625) was the second highest in the entire meet.

Cailin McGee won an age group all-around title for Victory, which finished second in the Level 6 state meet Dec. 2-3 with Lindsey Walker capturing an all-around title.

SWIMMING: In a meet that included 21 U.S. Olympians, a few local athletes fared well at the U.S. Open Swimming Championships on Nov. 30-Dec. 2 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

St. Petersburg Aquatic Club standout Megan Romano finished sixth in three events - the 100 freestyle (57.34 seconds), 200 freestyle (2:04.04) and 200 backstroke (2:18.50). Romano was also 13th in the 50 freestyle and 15th in the 100 backstroke and tied for 11th with 42 individual points.

Claire Thompson of West Florida Lightning Aquatics (WFLA) was 22nd in the 200 freestyle, 33rd in the 400 freestyle and 27th in the 800 free. Christine Thompson was 34th in the 400 free.

The host Clearwater Aquatics Team (CAT) amassed 1,021 team points - nearly 600 more than the runnerup - to win the Jingle Bell Invitational on Dec. 15-17. The Jingle Bell featured 33 teams and more than 800 swimmers.

CAT 10-year-old Alex Katz won a total of eight events, while Emman Crescimbeni and Wes Stearns won five apiece. Jana Willsey captured four event titles, while Adam Corbin and Mark Marshburn each won two.

St. Petersburg Aquatic was third with 520.5 team points, while West Florida Lightning was 11th and the Palm Harbor YMCA Piranhas placed 12th.

St. Pete Aquatic's Romano was the high-point winner for the open girls with 63 points, two ahead of CAT's Willsey. Crescimbeni had 69 points to win the open boys high-point honors.

WFLA's Katie Kastes won the 400 individual medley in a time of 4:33.70 at the Gator Swim Holiday Classic on Dec. 1-3 in Gainesville.

If you have youth sports news for this column, please contact Times correspondent Emery Skolfield at (727) 481-2027 or sptimesyouth@yahoo.com.

[Last modified December 23, 2006, 23:15:10]