Sunday, Feb. 07, 2010

Cortell repeats individual title, Crawford wins her first

Panther Creek's Crawford also wins state title in small teams division

Green Hope senior gymnast Cathy Cortell capped her career with the Falcons in a big way Thursday night, taking the top all-around score in the large-team portion of the 2010 state championships at Raleigh School of Gymnastics.

Cortell earned an all-around score of 39.35 to win the Division I state championship for the second straight year.

She also took top honors in the vault with a perfect 10 and placed first in the bars with a 9.95. She also finished second in the floor event with a score of 9.8.

"It feels really good, especially after getting the 10 on vault," Cortell said. "It's really exciting to do well for my team."

The Falcons placed fourth overall with a team score of 149.05. Apex was sixth with a score of 144.7.

"It was an awesome meet tonight. It was great that Cathy was able to finish off being No. 1 in the state and to bring home a perfect 10 on vault," said Green Hope and Cary coach Cindy Cotton.

Paige Casey, who placed 12th overall at 37.65, finished second-best for the Falcons.

Receiving the top score for Apex was Melissa Pittelli, whose all-around score of 37.2 put her in 14th place.

"This has been a great team this year. They've been very supportive of each other and had a lot of team spirit," said Apex coach Jean Sciacca.

In Friday's small-team championship, Panther Creek placed third with a score of 102.4 and Cary was sixth with a score of 81.45.

The highlight of the night was Panther Creek's Cassie Crawford, who had the top all-around score (37.85) and won the state championship.

It is the second straight year a P.C. gymnast has won the Division II title.

Athens Drive's Alyssa Tucker placed second in the All-Star division with a score of 39.2. Tucker had a perfect 10 on the beam to win that event.