Marlboro High School’s Melissa Astarita is airborne during her dismount on the balance beam. The sophomore excelled at the state championships, finishing third in the all-around and winning the state championship on the vault. The meet was held Nov. 14 at Montgomery High School. DORINE SHAPIRO Melissa Astarita’s first vault at the NJSIAA Individual Gymnastics Championships was a hit with the judges. It was 9.675 and good enough to have the Marlboro High School gymnast in the hunt for a medal.
“The gymnasts perform two vaults and most of the time the gymnasts will compete with the same vault both times,” Marlboro head coach Cathy Pierson said. “They just try and perform it better.”
Pierson pointed out that Astarita performed a Yurchenko layout — the gymnast does a round-off on the springboard, followed by a back handspring off the vault table — and received her 9.675 score. It was the best score at the time but with many more gymnasts yet to compete on the vault, Astarita decided to go for a higher score on her second vault. She added a full twist, bringing a higher potential score as well as higher risk.
The Mustangs’ standout nailed the vault and received a score of 9.750, which was enough to bring her the state championship.
“It was absolutely amazing,” Pierson said. “We are so excited and so proud of Melissa.”
It turned out Astarita made the right decision opting for the more difficult vault. Her 9.675 mark would have only been good for fifth place.
St. John Vianney High School’s Kristen Politz and Arianna Agrapides followed Astarita and scored matching scores of 9.725 with their vaults to tie for second place.
Overall, Astarita had a great state championship meet at Montgomery High School Nov. 14. In addition to her state championship in vault, she was third in the all-around (38.200) behind Politz (38.525) and Agrapides (38.500). The sophomore tied for second with Neptune High School’s Chelsea Baker on the balance beam (9.575). She placed fourth on the floor exercise (9.600).
Politz, who lives in Marlboro, added the floor exercise championship to her medal haul at Montgomery. Her floor routine received a 9.800 from the judges.
The Penn State University-bound senior took fifth on the uneven bars (9.475) and fourth on the balance beam (9.525).
Howell High School’s Monica Servidio, who was the allaround runner-up to Politz at the state sectional, was 10th this time with a score of 37.600.
Colts Neck High School put three gymnasts in the top 20, with Samantha Morrison (37.075), Charlotte Haaf (36.775) and Triniti Brown (36.450) finishing 13th, 17th and 20th. The Cougars’ Sophia Garito was 35th (34.825).
Freehold High School’s Isabella Schaffer was 26th (35.675) and teammate Arah Godbole finished 29th (35.450).
The team competition was held Nov. 12 in Montgomery with Colts Neck completing its outstanding year in third place (110.800), led by its quartet of all-around gymnasts Morrison, Haaf, Brown and Garito.
The state championships revealed what most in the Shore knew: the Shore Conference is where the gymnastics power in New Jersey resides.
Shore Conference teams swept the top three places in the team competition led by Red Bank Catholic High School, which won its second straight title with a team score of 112.925. Ally Cucich and Sierra Garcia led the Caseys to the successful defense of their 2014 title.
St. John Vianney was second (112.650).
Five of the 10 qualifying teams were from the conference, with Ocean Township High School finishing eighth (105.725) and Howell placing 10th (105.025).
At the individual championship meet, the Shore Conference also swept the top three positions in the all-around with Politz, Agrapides and Astarita.
Of the top 10 all-around finishers at the individual championships, six were from the conference. Cucich (37.900), Garcia (37.650) and Servidio were fifth, eight and 10th.