By Warren Kozireski
The College at Brockport’s gymnastics team continued their climb back to the top ranked team in the country by scoring a school record with 190.80 team points in a tri-meet Senior Day victory over Wilson College and Rhode Island College at the Brockport Invitational.
Junior Elizabeth Levy led the way scoring 38.475 points in the All-Around after finishing first on the Uneven Bars with a 9.575 and Balance Beam with 9.725, second in the Floor Exercise and fifth on the Vault. She entered the meet ranked fourth nationally in All-Around this year.
Senior Taylor Wierzba, ranked second in the country on the floor and 12th on the beam, took third in both events during the meet. Classmate Colleen Chahbazi was fourth on the beam and Kileigh Chapman, also competing in her final home regular season meet, finished third on the bars and fourth on the floor and sixth on the beam.
Freshman Olivia Sylvestro was tops on the Vault with a 9.70 while sophomore Lexi King finished first on the floor with a 9.775.
“I think it (our success) has had a lot to do with our three seniors,” said Brockport head coach John Feeney. “We had 13 brand new people this year and eight of 16 who competed this year are new and if we didn’t have the senior leadership we wouldn’t be where we are.
“They all understand that it is all about the team score and not so much about the individual. We didn’t have a good week against Penn State but since then we’ve seemed to put things together.”
The Golden Eagles entered the ECAC Championships at Ithaca ranked second overall in the country in Division III behind first place Cortland while ranked second on the beam and third in the other three events.
Brockport will host the top four teams for the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association national championships March 23-24. They have finished second at the event four times in the last decade.
