Boys Gymnastics
Clarence's Morse wins all-around, ties section record on vault Williamsville's Forman, Maziel, Stumpf, Roberson qualify for states
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville North's Jarred Forman qualified in all-around for the state meet at last Friday night's Section VI Championships at Williamsville South High School. Photo by Joe Eberle

Clarence finished 10-0 in its inaugural boys gymnastics season, so it was only fitting that its top gymnast won this year's Section VI all-around title.

Junior Michael Morse, who trains at Greater Buffalo Gymnastics Center, claimed the school's first section all-around title with a score of 53.9 Friday night at Williamsville South High School. 2004 all-around champion Jarred Forman, a Williamsville North senior and friend of Morse who trains with him at Greater Buffalo, took second with a 52.4.

Morse was happy he won but seemed pleased that the entire team had a good meet heading into Saturday's regional championships at 11 a.m. Saturday at Brockport State College. Morse is one of five Red Devils who qualified. Also advancing are Eric Neidermeier (floor, vault, high bar), Adam Cole (vault), Taylor Van Kuran (rings) and Cameron Collins (parallel bars).

"I'm definitely enjoying this right now," said Morse. "I really like that we did so well this year because we have a lot of guys that don't do club gymnastics and they really enjoy it."

Williamsville South seventh grader Cody Stumpf qualified for the state meet on floor exercise. He was second in the event with a 9.4. Photo by Joe Eberle

"Competing as well as we did shows we're not just a team coming out to play around," he added. "We were actually pretty serious about it. I hope we get as many guys next year as we did this year."

Morse won floor exercise (9.5), high bar (8.4) and tied 2004 Amherst Central grad Harrison Reisweber's 2003 record in the vault (9.6).

"I was good friends with Harry and it feels good to know that I can get up to the level he was," Morse said.

"Mike is a powerhouse," added Clarence coach Steve Martin. "He's got a lot of strength and knows exactly what he has to do. He's a team leader ... his strongest event is the vault but he's got a lot of tough skills on the high bar."

Forman was second in the pommel horse (8.7) and third on high bars (7.3) in what may be one of his last non-club competitive meets. Forman said he would not be competing in college.

Neidermeier was fifth all-around (44.8) and placed second in vault (8.9), third on floor (8.9) and fourth on high bar (6.8). Collins was eighth all-around (21.6), fourth on parallel bars (7.0), fifth on pommel horse (7.2) and seventh on floor (7.4). Van Kuran came 11th all-around (20.9), third on rings (6.1), fifth on floor (8.4) and seventh on parallel bars (6.4). Cole was third on vault (8.5), fourth on rings (6.0) and eighth on parallel bars (6.2). Story placed sixth on rings (8.1) and high bars (4.6) and eighth on floor (6.2).

"The majority of the team was made of boys who've never done gymnastics before (nine new gymnasts) and they showed a lot of talent," said Martin. "It was pretty impressive."

"I expected all of the guys to do really well and they met up with what I expected," he added.

Williamsville will be well represented at states. Joining Forman at states will be North's Michael Maziel in the pommel horse (first, 8.8) and parallel bars (second, 8.0), as well as Williamsville South seventh graders Cody Stumpf in floor exercise (second, 9.4), high bar (second, 8.0) and vault (9.1) and Nathaniel Roberson on floor (9.0) and pommel horse (7.6). Stumpf edged Maziel for third all-around, 49.8-48.0. Stumpf also won parallel bars (8.4).

"I was glad I did so good," said the 4-foot-10 Stumpf. "I was a little nervous at the beginning. On high bar, I messed up on my end a little bit but other than that, I thought I had a really good meet."

Maziel was also fourth on floor (8.6). Roberson was second on rings (6.3), third on pommel horse (7.6) and tied for fourth on parallel bars (7.0).

"I think we did very well for having such a young team," said Williamsville coach Joe Buscaglia. "You can't ask any more. They came out and had a great meet. But I expect that from them so for me, it's not a shock. That's what we train all year to do."

Other Williamsville gymnasts competing were North's Brandon O'Brien (fifth on vault, 8.2; sixth on floor, 8.0; tied for sixth on rings 4.8). South's Austin Aungst and North's Kyle Zee did not place in the top ten. Williamsville East's only representative, Chris Soh, attended but couldn't compete for family reasons.

Four Amherst Central gymnasts placed. Mike Huber and Andrew Brooks were seventh (4.4) and eighth (4.1) in the pommel horse, respectively, and Matt Weber and Jordan Simone were seventh (7.9) and eighth (7.7) on vault.

Hamburg's Brian Kent qualified for states in pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar.

North finished second behind Clarence in the regular season at 8-2, followed by Hamburg (6-4), South (4-6), Amherst (2-8) and East (0-10).

"There was much more competition with Clarence coming in so it's a little tougher now," said Buscaglia. "I would rather have it more competitive than having the same guys make it every year."

Maziel and Forman shared the Mark Monaco Gymnast of the Year Award, given to the Section VI senior who made a significant impact in gymnastics and shown a high level of participation, leadership, sportsmanship, academics and community service. Monaco, who won the award with Maryvale in 1991, died in an automobile accident in 1998.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com