Hometown Sports
Don't Miss

4 Local Nittany Gymnastics athletes Qualify for USA Gymnastics National Championship Meets

 

Courtesy of Nittany Gymnastics

 

Emma Karas, a 16 year old level 10 gymnast at Nittany Gymnastics Academy in State College, qualified for the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic National Invitational Tournament (NIT) in Jackson, Mississippi. She qualified from the Regional Championships which were held at the Parkette National Training Center in Allentown, PA where she placed 7th on Vault and 11th in the All Around competition. Region 7 is comprised of thousands of gymnasts from the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and Delaware. Emma has been doing gymnastics for over 12 years and hopes to earn a full scholarship at a Division I school. This was Emma’s first year at level 10 which makes this an even greater accomplishment. This meet will provide a great opportunity for her to showcase her talent in front of all major college coaches.

At the same competition, Kyra Levi, an 18 year old level 10 gymnast at Nittany Gymnastics Academy in State College, also qualified for the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic National Invitational Tournament (NIT) in Jackson, Mississippi. Kyra placed 15th in the All Around at the Regional Championships. This will be the second time Kyra has qualified for this competition, and she placed 6th on the uneven bars at her last appearance which was held in Virginia Beach, VA. Kyra has accepted a spot on the University of Pennsylvania, (UPENN) women’s gymnastics team, and will begin her college gymnastics career in the Fall of 2014.

Kira Hoy, another Nittany Gymnastics competitor, also qualified for the NIT at regionals, where she scored a 36.7 all-around and is an alternate for the Region 7 team at the National Championships. This is also her second appearance at the National Championships. In her last appearance she was on the Region 7 team at the National Championships which was held in Long Beach, CA. Kira will continue here gymnastics career in college and has accepted a spot on the women’s gymnastics team at Western Michigan University for the fall of 2014.

Level 10 is the highest level of competition in the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic program, and uses the same rules as Olympic level. Each level of competition in the JO program gets progressively more difficult from 1 – 10. The first 5 levels are called “Compulsory” levels where all gymnasts perform the same skills and routines. Level 6 – 10 are called “Optional” Levels in that each gymnast has the option of composing their own routines subject to the difficulty restrictions for each level. As gymnasts progress through the levels, they are permitted (and usually required) to perform higher level skills until they reach Level 10 where there are no difficulty restrictions.

Emma, Kira, and Kyra all competed in 6 competitions this season. The invitational meets were held at NC State in North Carolina, LSU in Louisiana, Maryland, and various locations in Pennsylvania. They placed in every competition.

All three of the girls train over 20 hours per week at Nittany Gymnastics. They are coached by Amy Riefel and Mike Rizzuto, who have a combined 50+ years of coaching experience in gymnastics and who have developed a high level competitive program at Nittany Gymnastics. Mike is a National Instructor for USA Gymnastics and presents coaching clinics for the organization all across the country. He is also a National Safety Certification Instructors and will be presenting the course at the USA Gymnastics National Congress.

Pennsylvania is the third largest State in the country with regards to the total number of registered gymnasts. There are over 110 teams in Pennsylvania that participate in the women’s Junior Olympic program. Nittany Gymnastics is the only team in central PA to have any athletes attending this competition and is also one of only 13 teams in the state of Pennsylvania that is sending gymnasts to the women’s National competition.

Jaret Beyer, a 13 year old level 9 gymnast on the boy’s team at Nittany Gymnastics Academy qualified for the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic Championships in Long Beach California by putting in an outstanding performance at the USA Gymnastics Region 7 Championships. The Regional Championships were held at the Montgomery County Sports Complex in Harleysville, PA. Jaret placed 5th on High Bar and qualified with a 72.25 in the All Around. The top 29 all-around gymnasts in each age group earned a place on the Region 7 team for Nationals. This is an even greater accomplishment for Jaret, as it is his first year of competition as a Level 9. He qualified for the National Championships last year as a Level 8, so this will be Jaret’s second year in a row competing at the National Championships.

Jaret has competed in 7 competitions this season all around the state of Pennsylvania, placing 3rd All Around in 2 of the competitions and multiple 1st through 3rd places throughout the year.  Jaret trains over 15 hours per week at Nittany Gymnastics. He is coached by Mark Davis, a former Southern Illinois University full scholarship gymnast, who has over 40 years of coaching experience in gymnastics.  Mark also studied men’s gymnastics in Japan with an exchange program.

Jaret has been doing gymnastics since he was two years old and hopes to earn a scholarship to compete in college. As with our female competitors, this competition presents a great opportunity for him to showcase his talent in front of all major college coaches.

This is the fourth year in a row that Nittany Gymnastics Academy has had a gymnast at a USA Gymnastics National Level competition. Nittany Gymnastics has over 100 athletes on their girls and boys competitive teams and has produced numerous State, Regional and National Champion gymnasts as well as numerous collegiate scholarship athletes.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.