A gymnastics trip to Las Vegas prevented North Allegheny junior Sarah Patterson from competing at last season’s WPIAL individual championships.
This season she left nothing to chance.
Patterson, a Level 9 gymnast and one of the program’s top all-around performers, will take part in the WPIAL individuals this season after missing the 2024 championships because she didn’t participate in enough regular-season meets.
“This will be my first time doing WPIAL individuals,” she said, “and I’m excited.”
Patterson had attended the prestigious 2024 Vegas Cup with her club team, Xquisite Gymnastics, in late January and missed two of North Allegheny’s four meets, which cost her the mandated number of meets to be eligible for WPIALs.
She was able to compete at the 2024 WPIAL team finals, helping North Allegheny to a fourth-place finish, but she had to sit out the following day at the individual championships.
“I knew that going in,” she said. “It was (difficult), but the meet that I had to go to for club was on the West Coast, so I knew what commitment I was going to make.”
Patterson is a consistent top scorer for the Tigers, who went 6-1 in Section 1 (7-1) and qualified for the WPIAL team championships on Feb. 7 at Moon. The WPIAL individual event is Feb. 8 at Moon.
She scored a season-best 9.5 in the floor exercises in a 141.25-125.525 senior night win over North Hills on Jan. 4, and led all scorers in the balance beam (8.55) in a tri-meet sweep of Fox Chapel and defending WPIAL champion Pine-Richland on Jan. 2.
“She’s a great gymnast,” North Allegheny coach Nicole Bova said. “Her consistency has definitely improved. … I think she has a really good shot at showing what she can do (at WPIALs). It will be really exciting to see how she compares with some of the other gymnasts there.”
Bova said all of her top gymnasts have the required number of meets this season. Like Patterson, sophomores Hannah Seidl and Caroline DiRenzo and freshman Lola Hood will compete in the Advanced All-Around division at the WPIAL individual championships.
Patterson’s best event is the floor exercise. She had the highest score in the event (9.367) at last year’s WPIAL team championships. In her four meets this season, she scored 9.0, 9.3, 9.45 and 9.5.
“I just really like tumbling, so I put a lot of time into it on floor,” she said. “I’m just practicing over and over again and adding extra dance elements and making sure my choreography is good and that I have good presentation and good facial (expressions). It’s just pulling in the judges and making sure they love my routine.”
Said Bova, “Obviously, the tumbling on her floor routine makes your eyes pop open and makes you want to watch her. But in between, the dance and all that, it’s beautiful. She shows it off, and it’s exciting to watch.”
Patterson started dancing at age 2 but realized she wanted something more exciting. Her parents signed her up for a summer gymnastics camp at age 6 and she never stopped.
“I just loved tumbling and being upside down,” she said. “I took dance classes when I was little and I was always swinging on the ballet bar. … I was not fearless. I definitely had a lot of fear that I had to push through. Just kind of taking steps backward before you can move forward again. But I do love it, so I never wanted to give up on it.”
Patterson, who holds a 4.0 GPA, wants to do acrobatics and tumbling in college and is considering some of the nation’s top programs, such as Limestone (S.C.), Montevallo (Ala.), Quinnipiac, Fairmont and Gannon.
She and her teammates are hoping to fare well at the WPIAL team championships. North Allegheny has won, by far, more WPIAL team gymnastics titles than any other school (18), but none since 2011. The Tigers’ only blemish this season was a narrow 138.35-137.3 loss to Thomas Jefferson.
“I think the team is going to do really well this year,” Patterson said. “We only lost to TJ by a little bit. We’ve been super strong and super consistent. Everyone is super focused, and we are all super excited.”