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Sports

SP-F Gymastics Team Places Second in County Championships

This is the first time the Raiders have earned that place in over five years.

Everyone knew that Westfield was going to capture a fourth consecutive Union County Interscholastic Athletic Conference gymnastics championship Friday night at its own gym.

However, second place was up for grabs and for the first time in five years Scotch Plains-Fanwood reached that plateau.

Scotch Plains out-pointed third-place Cranford 105.800 to 105.375 for second-place honors.

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Cranford finished second in 2008 and 2007.

Scotch Plains last finished second in 2004 when Dayton-Brearley won that competition at Cranford. The Raiders last won the event in 2003, beating out host Cranford, which finished second.

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he Raiders were third in 2008 and 2007, sixth in 2006 and fourth in 2005.

“I’m very excited for the way they performed tonight,” Scotch Plains head coach Lisa Cerchio said of her girls.

Cerchio wasn’t sure if finishing second was going to be possible.

“I thought we had a shot at it, but I really wasn’t expecting second place,” Cerchio said. “We set the bar a little high for us. I think it was a combination of hitting our beam routines and having an awesome meet on vault and bars as well. It really helped make up for us having a little lower on floor. We came out and started on floor, which is normally a very strong event for us. The judges were scoring a little low on floor.”

Scotch Plains had gymnasts place in the vault competition – Gina Peloso fourth at 9.150 – and the balance beam - Lindsay Robinson tied for second with Danielle McAuliffe of Cranford at 9.200.

“We came back and rallied together for vault and bars,” Cerchio said. “We had one of our best performances on bars today.

“We also took our beam routines and that’s all I can ask for. These girls came out and gave it their best shot, they cheered each other on, they have tremendous team spirit and I’m really proud.”

 Placing in the all-around with the best gymnasts in the county was Scotch Plains freshman Alex Peluso. She scored an impressive 35.125 for sixth best.

“I was really nervous, but once I got here it was so much fun and it was a lot easier,” Peluso said. “Being part of the team really made me more comfortable and they gave me some advice, so they really helped.”

“That was amazing, what Alex did,” Cerchio said.

To show what kind of freshman season Peluso is having, the 35.125 score is not even her highest all-around mark.

“It wasn’t her strongest meet,” Cerchio said. “Her best event today was definitely beam. Her beam routine was really clean and it was nice and it was definitely what we expected out of her.”

Peluso’s all-around performance was a big reason why the Raiders were able to get past Cranford this time for second place.

“We just came out here to try to do our best and get second and we did,” Peluso said.

“Everything’s coming together and we’re looking forward to the rest of the season being a bunch of successes to build on,” Cerchio said. “The girls push each other to do just a little bit better than they think they can do and I think that the team spirit definitely makes all the difference.”

Union Catholic finished sixth in the team standings with a score of 85.325. Last year the Vikings were also sixth with a score of 73.550 – so this year’s score was a big improvement – while Union Catholic was also sixth in 2007 with a score of 82.075.

One of Union Catholic’s top gymnasts was Nicole Pietrapertosa, who placed third at vault with a score of 9.175. Her all-around score was 34.800, just below the top six that placed. 

Westfield won the team title for the fourth straight season and that means that the Blue Devils will host the event once again in 2010, since the defending champion gets to host the next year.

Westfield scored a 110.325 after scoring a 110.525 in 2008, a 109.425 in 2007 and a 105.6 in 2006.

Blue Devil standout senior Lacy Cummings was the all-around champion for the third consecutive year, this time with a score of 37.150. She won last year with a score of 37.650 and two years ago with a score of 36.850.

Cummings captured the vault with a tied-for-event-best score of 9.500 and also was first in the floor exercise event at 9.400. Cummings was second in uneven parallel bars at 9.200.

Last year, Cummings was first in vault at 9.650, first in uneven parallel bars at 9.100 and first in balance beam at 9.60.

Two years ago Cummings was first in vault at 9.800.

Lindsay Ripperger of Westfield was first in balance beam, tying Cummings with an event-best mark of 9.500.

Westfield standout senior Jenna Rodrigues was first in uneven parallel bars at 9.225.

Rodrigues and Cummings formed a nice tandem that helped lead Westfield to much of its success the past four seasons.

As a freshman in 2006 when the meet was held on a Saturday afternoon at Union, Rodrigues was second in the all-around at 36.125, with Union senior Danielle Scott first at 36.725. Scott was also the all-around winner her junior year at the 2005 meet at Brearley with a score of 36.825.

Rodrigues was also second in the all-around her sophomore year in 2007 when the meet returned to Westfield after the Blue Devils captured the title again in 2006. Her score was 36.725.

The only year Rodrigues did not place among the top six all-around performers was last year because of an injury. She did, however, do well enough to place in vault (6th), uneven parallel bars (tied for 2nd) and in balance beam (2nd).

Johnson standout senior Brie Ferdinandi placed second in all-around for the second straight season, this time with a score of 36.425. Her high score was a 9.325, good for fourth place in floor exercise. Ferdinandi was second in vault at 9.275 and third in uneven parallel bars at 9.100.

Last year, Ferdinandi had an all-around score of 36.625 and her high score of 9.475 was good for second place at vault.

Among the colleges Ferdinandi is considering for gymnastics is Rutgers. 

2009 UNION COUNTY GYMNASTICS MEET AT WESTFIELD

TEAMS: 1-Westfield 110.325. 2-Scotch Plains 105.800. 3-Cranford 105.375. 4-Johnson 104.325. 5-Union 90.575. 6-Union Catholic 85.325.

7-Elizabeth 70.450. 8-Dayton-Brearley 69.350. 9-Linden 35.400.

10-Roselle Park 31.975. 11-Governor Livingston 23.850.

ALL-AROUND: 1-Lacy Cummings, Westfield, 37.150. 2-Brie Ferdinandi, Johnson, 36.425. 3-Jenna Rodrigues, Westfield, 36.250. 4-Mary Kate Walch, Cranford, 35.725. 5-Kelsey Maloney, Linden, 35.400. 6-Alex Peluso, Scotch Plains, 35.125.

VAULT: 1-Lacy Cummings, Westfield, 9.500. 2-Brie Ferdinandi, Johnson, 9.275. 3-Nicole Pietrapertosa, Union Catholic, 9.175. 4-Gina Peloso, Scotch Plains, 9.150. 5-Mary Kate Walch, Cranford, 9.100. 6-Kelsey Maloney, Linden, 9.050.

UNEVEN PARALLEL BARS: 1-Jenna Rodrigues, Westfield, 36.250. 2-Lacy Cummings, Westfield, 9.200. 3-Brie Ferdinandi, Johnson, 9.100. 4-Kelsey Maloney, Linden, 8.875. 5-Mary Kate Walch, Cranford, 8.850. 6-Dianca Briscese, Johnson, 8.750.

BALANCE BEAM: 1-Lindsay Ripperger, Westfield, 9.500. 2-Lindsay Robinson, Scotch Plains, and Danielle McAuliffe, Cranford, 9.200. 4-Sara Shields, Westfield, 9.150. 5-Jenna Rodrigues, Westfield; Mary Kate Walch, Cranford and Vivian Altmann, Cranford, 9.100.

FLOOR EXERCISE: 1-Lacy Cummings, Westfield, 9.400. 2-Jenna Rodrigues, Westfield, and Lindsay Ripperger, Westfield, 9.375. 4-Brie Ferdinandi, Johnson, 9.325. 5-Kelly Bohlinger, Westfield, 9.075. 6-Emily Grable, Cranford, 8.950. 

PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS (11) 
Union, Westfield, Elizabeth, Cranford,

Union Catholic, Johnson, Dayton-Brearley, Scotch Plains,

Linden, Roselle Park, Governor Livingston.

SCOTCH PLAINS RAIDERS

Head coach: Lisa Cerchio.

Gymnasts: Jessica Colineri, Michelle Rogoff, Annie Rubin, Leya Quinones,

Joelle Pisauro, Ales Peluso, Emily Nardone, Melissa Gara, Tori Berman,

Victoria Snack, Lindsay Robinson, Gina Peloso, Zoe Stein.

UNION CATHOLIC VIKINGS

Head coach: Aimee Sanchez.

Gymnasts: Jacqueline Fabricatire, Elizabeth Jones, Joanna Bianco,

Nicole Pietrapertosa, Marissa Mastrocola, Jasmine Holmes, Sally Beriont.

 
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