New England Championship: Aleman finishes 6th

Woodstock Academy sophomore Olivia Aleman put together a strong individual performance at the New England Gymnastics championship at Pinkerton Academy in New Hampshire Saturday.

She finished sixth in the All-Around with fifth-place finishes in the vault and in the floor exercise.

“She was a little nervous going into the competition, though. She was a little shaky to start. Bars wasn’t her normal but, overall, she did great and had such a great season,” said Woodstock Academy coach Kasey Tocchio. “She has to be proud of herself. I think she is ready to come back and be a leader next year. It was a good ending.”

Another good sign was that Aleman was able to stay, for the most part, injury free.

“She has those overuse and aches and pains like most gymnasts at this time of year but we really tried to balance her training this season and I think she did a really good job of listening to her body to get through it,” Tocchio said.

Woodstock Academy freshman Julia Kerr was also scheduled to take part in the New England championship but an ankle injury suffered in practice following the State Open championship the week before sidelined her.

“She didn’t want to push it. She, actually, is going to have surgery to clear out the ankle. It just wasn’t worth it to compete this season (at New England’s),” Tocchio said.

But Aleman wasn’t alone.

“It was a lot of fun (Saturday). There were five of them (from Deary’s Gymnastics), all wearing the same leotard in different colors. We had four of them competing in the All-Around which was kind of cool. They were a very good group so they got to hang out and cheer each other on and cheer on other kids from the state. Connecticut was like its own little team,” Tocchio said.