The Vikings continue to raise the bar

Not only did the Winthrop gymnastics team break the all-time Winthrop High School (WHS) meet score with a 141.15 earlier in the season, but Saturday, February 14, turned out to be another history making day for the team.

Most years, Winthrop High School has been proud to qualify 1 or 2 kids to State Individuals. This year, the team was proud to send five! The only all-around qualifier was senior captain Nicole Gennaco. Not since Jane Derderian has a Viking gymnast made it to all-arounds, and Nicole has done it three times.

Junior Daria Millerick, qualified for beam and was seeded 12th in the state going into the competition. Sophomores Danika Dell’ano qualified on the floor and Jade Santangelo qualified on the vault and on the bars. Freshman Jessica Fahey also qualified for bars.

State quality competition proved a bit challenging for most of the Viking gymnasts and gave them some much appreciated experience, however didn’t garnish any awards, except for Jade Santangelo, who came away with a highly coveted First Place in the state with a 9.15 on the uneven bars with her signature flawless routine.

In another excellent achievement for the Viking gymnasts, they also qualified for the Team State Sectionals Meet which was held on Saturday, February 22, at Hudson High School. “This is an exceptional achievement for a small school such as Winthrop, which is part of the Northeast [NE]Conference.

The NE Conference is easily the toughest gymnastics conference in the state, qualifying more teams to sectionals and to states than any other conference,” coach Kim Cash said, beaming. “We went in seeded ninth and we held our own and came out in ninth place. I’m just very proud of our team. Our gymnasts were very excited to qualify, and they each turned out great routines. Our high scores were turned in by Jade Santangelo (8.75) and Nicole Gennaco (8.85) on vault, Nicole Gennaco (8.9) and Daria Millerick (9.1) on beam, Danika Dell’ano (8.55) and Jade Santangelo (8.65) on floor, and Jade Santangelo (8.85) and Nicole Gennaco (8.575) on bars.”

Cash added, “There are some interesting facts about this team that I would like to add. Many of kids on the high school team came up through Winthrop Gymnastics Academy, located right here in Winthrop Center, so we’re very thankful for the wonderful program there. Also, we have our first gymnast from the co-op program, Samantha Amica, from Lynn English.

The co-op program is great since it allows a child who does a sport that’s not supported at their high school to partake of that sport at a cooperative high school. Similar opportunities are available to Winthrop kids. Sam has a nice floor routine and it was great having her on our record-breaking team!”

GYMNASTICS NOTES

The Winthrop Gymnastics Academy took part in the Little Bigger Invitational meet on Friday, February 20. WGA was proud to send its Junior Olympic team to one of the biggest area invitation meets in gymnastics with over 1,000 participants from seven states.

The Winthrop Gymnastics team, coached by Peter Gobiel and Tami D’tria, proudly came away with second place trophy in their division. The team includes the following gymnasts, who garnished awards in their age categories as follows: Danika Dell’ano, who placed first on vault, fourth on bars, fifth on beam, and sixth all around.

Jackie Whalen placed fourth on bars; Shannon Mullone placed second on vault, third on bars and third all-around; Daria Millerick placed first on bars, sixth on beam, second on floor, and second all-around; and Jessica Fahey placed first on vault, third on bars, sixth on beam, and third all around.