The Yorkton Springers Gymnastics Club kicked off their competition season at the 2011 Prairie Invitational Women's Artistic Gymnastics Meet in Regina recently.
Springers' head coach, George Baranyai, says the competition level was close to the highest level of competition in the province.
Yorkton sent seven competitive gymnasts who competed at level two and up as well as 20 pre-competitive girls in two different levels and age categories, Baranyai reports.
The seven competitive youngsters won 14 medals altogether at the meet which was the best competition result the Yorkton Springers achieved in the last five years, Baranyai points out.
While the girls performed very well, Baranyai says, they still made some mistakes. There is still time to work on those for future events. "All around, I was very happy with the girls performance," he states.
This year the Yorkton Springers have around 120 youngsters involved in both competitive and recreational gymnastics, Baranyai reports.
In his first year with the Yorkton Springers, Baranyai comes from Hungary where he was a high level gymnast himself. He competed at world championships and at the 1976 Olympic Games as a member of the Hungarian team.
In Canada he has coached olympic level gymnasts, including athletes who made the national team for the last 15 years. He recently coached gymnasts who competed at the Commonwealth games and world championships as well as one who qualified for the olympics.
Currently Baranyai's family is in Saskatoon. He travels to Yorkton every week to coach the Springers youngsters. He plans to relocate to the city when his wife completes her job in Saska-toon.
Baranyai is assisted by coaches Todd Appel, Sonya Brewer, Brandi Helmeczi and Jerry Lutz. Brewer, Helmeczi and Lutz work with young athletes in the Gym Cat program while Appel, a former Yorkton Springer athlete, assists with the competitive gymnastics program.
Baranyai says the Springers have just started their current competitive season. He plans to attend more events and winning more medals.
Results for the competitive gymnasts at Regina were: Provincial Tyro 1 - Shalysa Brown, 46.300, second; Jayden Jarvis, 43.400, seventh; Emily Zajac, 37.600, 16th. Provincial Novice 1 - Laura Betker, 41.800, eighth. Provincial 2 Argo - Brynn Nystrom, 43.784, 11th. Provincial 2 Tyro - Hannah Herman, 47.768, seond; Breanne Gelowitz, 47.234, fourth; Sierra Cook, 44.718, 10th. Provincial 2 Open - Cassidy Stachowich, 46.652, second.
