By Wayne Witkowski
Monica Servidio had a goal of being a state champion during her high school career for Howell High School just as she had been a few years ago in the floor exercise and balance beam for her Action Gymnastics team out of Millstone.
She came close two years ago with a second-place finish in the balance beam at the NJSIAA individual state championships. But the senior, who committed to a college career at Temple University Nov. 9, did not finally get her gold in the balance beam. Instead, she won the uneven bars at the individual state championships Nov. 13 at Montgomery High School.
It’s an event that was almost an afterthought at times for Servidio behind the beam and floor exercise.
“She found it a little bit humorous,” said Sara Phillips, who moved up this year to head coach after three years as an assistant at Howell.
But Servidio, who won the all-around just two days earlier in the team championships also at Montgomery while leading Howell to a seventh-place finish, knew she was performing well but did not realize it was well enough to win uneven bars in her final event of the day. She scored 9.65 to finish ahead of Melissa Asparita of Marlboro High School, who scored 9.6. Servidio also had won uneven bars ahead of Asparita in a dual meet during the season. Howell dropped the meet to Marlboro, which went on to win Shore Conference A North Division. Howell finished 12-2 in dual meets.
“I was very surprised. It’s never been one of my strongest events. I didn’t even know I won until they called me up to the podium,” Servidio said.
The effort sealed for Servidio a second-place finish in the all-around with a season-high 38.575 points, which was just .25 points behind Nicolette DiPrisco of Red Bank Catholic High School.
Overlooked a bit by Servidio’s gold in the uneven bars was her second-place finish in the floor exercise with a score of 9.6 to go with a 9.7 in the vault for fourth place and a 9.625 in the balance beam for fifth.
Phillips said the key to Servidio’s gold in uneven bars was eliminating the deductions of points, which meant not separating her legs as she sometimes does in the blind change (a backward changeover) and the short over (a move that calls for soaring from the high bar to the lower one and catching it on a release move).
“That definitely helped me a lot because you can lose two-tenths of a point on each of those [deductions],” Servidio said. “It was the last event, and I was having a really good meet. I wound up hitting all of my hand stands and definitely felt a lot more confident. None of us expected we’d do this well and in states, we went all out.”
Servidio said she was pleased with her routine in floor exercise, which includes a double pike, a 1 1/2-foot layout and a front handspring layout.
Teammate Abby Schwerdt, who also qualified for the individual state championships, finished seventh in the uneven bars at 9.5 and also scored a season-high 9.25 in the vault but did not medal there.
Servidio’s effort in the uneven bars tied her high score of the season from the NJSIAA Central I sectional meet. As a team, Howell placed fourth in that meet but advanced to the state finals based on team scores in the section. The five section champions advance and the next five teams based on scoring complete the field. Central I runner-up Colts Neck High School and third-place finisher Middletown High School South joined Howell in grabbing three of the remaining five spots, with Howell at No. 9 of the 10 teams.
“[Servidio] practices everything dozens of times, but it’s her consistency,” Phillips said.
The coach also credited the team’s success to Schwerdt, senior Breanna Ray and sophomore Karly Nowak in the floor exercise and senior Julia Nocks and sophomore Annie Fleisch in vault.
Servidio said she’ll concentrate in the months ahead on the vault and getting better height.
“I really want to make my vault better,” Servidio said. “This year, I’m improving in it and want to compete in college in vault.”
Servidio also has shown consistency with Action Gymnastics, where she has been a level 10 — the highest classification — over the last six years and has advanced into the regionals the last five years. A back injury in the regionals before her junior year affected her in the early going. She didn’t recapture the form she had in her sophomore high school season when she was all-around champion in the Shore Conference meet. This year would be different.
“This felt really good considering that last year I was hurt,” Servidio said of her golden performance in Montgomery.
There was little time for Servidio to relax. Action Gymnastics had a season-opening meet Nov. 19 — just a week after the state individual meet.