Pair makes Arena proud

Gymnasts reach national level

By: Bob Nuse
   Making it to the national level as a gymnast isn’t easy. But Valdi Kolasa could tell that he had a couple of gymnasts capable of doing just that in Alina Weinstein and Gabrielle Swain.
   "I’m not surprised they are doing this well," said Kolasa, their coach at Arena Gymnastics in West Windsor. "It was expected and we put a lot of hard work into it. There was always the potential, but the competitions are very strong and it comes down to the performance that day. At the national level the competitions are so tight that any of the top 10 gymnasts could win on that day.
   "We’ve had some significant successes over the years with some of our gymnasts. We’ve had elite gymnasts and Alina was one of them. We had Morgan Dennis competing at U.S. Nationals, which is the highest level of competition at the elite level."
   Weinstein and Swain are the latest in the line of top gymnasts to come through Arena. Weinstein, a 16-year-old sophomore at West Windsor-Plainsboro South, has been to the nationals before. For Swain, a Montgomery resident and fifth grader at Chapin School in Princeton, it was her first trip.
   "A couple years ago I won regionals at the same level and went to nationals," said Weinstein, who competes at Level 10. "I went through a lot of ups and downs the last few years, so I didn’t compete last year. Two years ago I won regionals. Last year I was injured and sick. This year I came back and proved to myself how far I could go.
   "This would have been a really good year for me at nationals and I think I would have placed. But right after regionals I got stressed out from all that hard work and school and I got really sick. I had tonsillitis with a fever and everything. I was out for a week and only had about four days to prepare for nationals.
   At the Region 7 championships, Weinstein finished first all-around with a score of 37.725. She won the bars and the floor, while coming in second on beam and fifth on vault.
   The performance allowed her to return to nationals, where she was fourth two years ago. But because she was ill and did not get to prepare well for the event, Weinstein didn’t fare quite as well as she hoped she would.
   For Swain, just making it to the Eastern Nationals event was a new experience. She finished second all-around in the Level 9 competition with a score of 37.75. She had qualified for nationals by finishing third all-around at regionals, which included a first-place finish on bars. She had won the vault championship at the New Jersey championships.
   "It was surprising, but I knew I could do it," Swain said. "I always tried my best in practice and last summer I learned a lot of new skills. It was a lot of hard work and sometimes it was really hard to handle. But I have really good coaches and they really helped me.
   "I like vault the most. Usually I do well on bars and vault."
   Kolasa had confidence in both of the gymnasts, and he wasn’t the least bit surprised to see them to do well on the big stage.
   "Sometimes history repeats itself," Kolasa said. "Alina is five years older than Gabrielle. And five years ago, in 2002, when Alina was competing at Gabrielle’s level, which is Level 9, and she went to nationals at the same place as this time in Kissimmee. Alina won and Gabby came in second this time. It was almost the same performance five years later.
   "They still have a way to go. Girls at this level have ambitions to go to college and get scholarships. We’ve had this in the past with a couple of our athletes. Morgan Dennis is a freshman at the University of Alabama and she was national champion on floor exercise. She beat a couple of the former Olympians."
   Both gymnasts have hopes of doing even better down the road. And both also had high praise for their coaches.
   "I think Valdi is one of the best coaches that I have ever had, just because I feel like I have grown up with him," said Weinstein, a Plainsboro resident who has been with Arena for 11 years. "He’s the only coach that really knows how to get inside of my head. A lot of the things he says are crucial and things I don’t think any other coach could say. He knows how I think and he knows how to push me. He’s a very good coach in that sense because we really connect."
   Added Swain, who started gymnastics at the age of 4: "Trish Supthen is usually the beam coach and sometimes floor for me, she cleans up the routine. On beam she pushes me a lot and helps me a lot. Sometimes she’s hard on me but she really pushes me and I know she and Valdi do that because they want me to get better."
   Having both gotten a taste of what it’s like to compete at the highest level, both gymnasts hope to be back in the same position again in the future.
   And that’s something that wouldn’t surprise Kolasa at all.