Thursday, March 27, 2025
Currently 7-1 with just over a week left in the regular season, it’s nothing but full steam ahead for the South Side gymnastics program, said head coach Ashley Harney. The Cyclones currently boast a technically strong program with multiple gymnasts landing themselves merit to compete in the state qualifying meet.
Hanrey described junior Mia DiSalvo as the team’s anchor for the floor exercise, emphasizing how strong of an athlete she is. DiSalvo met the state qualifying numbers for beam and vault, averaging 8.43 and 8.22 for the respective events.
“She’s been a really strong competitor for us, she pulls through for us,” Harney said.
There’s also team captains who share the limelight on the floor, seniors Olivia Accomando and Julia Boehm. Both excel on the floor according to their coach, with Olivia eligible for the state qualifiers with her 8.82 average in that event.
For the uneven bars, Ava Jewett has the highest average on the team with 8.43, also set to be competing for the state qualifier meet in the event. “She’s been extremely consistent on the uneven bars this year,” Harney said. “Last year she sometimes had a hard time connecting her long-hang kick to her catch but this year there was only one meet where she disconnected it so she’s been really consistent on bars for us.”
Nina Napoli, excelling on the bars and beam events for the Cyclones, after having acquired a new skill on the bars. As a result, she’d been able to score well enough to qualify for the state qualifier for her first time ever.
“She’s a constant for us on beam throughout the year,” Harney said. “She’s got the highest average on our team on balance beam with an 8.63, and she’ll also be competing on the balance beam at the state qualifying meet.”
A lot of the improvement this season came from athletes like Sofia Rosa, the only all-around gymnast on the roster, with added emphasis on what she does on the vault.
“Sofia has become our anchor on vaulting because she has now been starting to do the Tsukahara vault. She’s my first gymnast in nine years that’s pulled this vault off and she’s increased her score because of it,” Harney said. “She’s also pretty strong on uneven bars and is very close to qualifying on uneven bars for state qualifiers.”
Rosa met the state qualifier for the beam with an 8.58 average, and with a 9.1 average for the floor.
The Cyclones have Syosset and Plainview circled on their calendar as some of their toughest competition of the season.
“We definitely have some tough weeks to come but we’re looking forward to it,” she said.
After that are the state qualifiers on Feb. 11, where all of the girls who qualified to get into this event will compete against each other individually at a state meet. On a team-level, there’s still the team championships that’s on Feb. 13, after which the top 10 teams in the county compete against each other.
