Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) hosted its WPIAL/UPMC Sports Medicine Gymnastics Team Championships at Moon High School this past Friday night. Six teams competed for the right to be named WPIAL champions, and Thomas Jefferson emerged as the victor with a score of 141.975 – topping runner-up North Allegheny by a narrow 0.550-point margin.
This is the third WPIAL team championship for Thomas Jefferson (9-0, 7-0 Section I), placing it in a group of five schools with at least three titles. The Jaguars were previously champions in 2019 and 2020, and join the three-time winner club with North Allegheny (18), Moon (8), Pine-Richland (4), and Baldwin (3).
Thomas Jefferson claimed its lone shared win in the balance beam with a score of 34.875, but added second-place finishes in the vault (37.450) and uneven bars (34.150), and a third in the floor exercise (35.500) to claim the title. Nicole Parson led the Jaguars’ balance beam effort with a score of 9.200, while Adam Wilson posted a match-best 9.600 in the vault. Riley Barna was the team’s top performer in the uneven bars with a mark of 8.650, and Cam Noderer’s 9.100 led Thomas Jefferson in the floor exercise.
North Allegheny (7-1, 6-1 Section I) placed runner-up with a score of 141.425. The Tigers won the vault (37.550) and shared the win in the balance beam (34.875), while finishing third in the uneven bars (33.900) and fourth in the floor exercise (35.100). Central Valley (14-0, 7-0 Section II) won the uneven bars and finished third overall (140.425), and Baldwin (6-3, 4-3 Section I) posted the top floor exercise score (35.650) and came home fourth (139.350) in the six-team field.
Beaver (10-3, 6-1 Section II) and West Allegheny (11-3, 5-2 Section II) completed the running order in fifth and sixth, respectively. The Bobcats finished with 136.650 points, while the Indians scored 136.350 points.
The top individual scores in each event were Wilson in the Vault, Central Valley’s Bria Zelesnik in the uneven bars with 9.300, and Baldwin’s Abby Rexrode in the balance beam (9.525) and floor exercise (9.500).
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