Section 1 High School Gymnastics : Will a State Record be Tied This Year

by Warren Rosenberg, MetroSports Magazine December 19, 2025

Three local NYSPHAA varsity girls gymnastics teams competed in one of the early weeks of the 2025-26 competition season. This included teams from Lakeland-Panas High School, Somers High School and Brewster High School. 

The competition took place at the facility of Dynamic Gymnastics in Mohegan Lake, NY, which is operated by the husband and wife team of Sorin Cepoi and Teodora Ungureanu Cepoi, both former Olympic gymnasts who competed for the Romanian national and olympic teams in the 1970s. In addition to the competition between athletes from the participating schools, there was also a competition between the head coaches of the Lakeland-Panas and Somers teams. Olympian Sorin Cepoi is head coach of the Lakeland-Panas High School team and Olympian Teodora Ungureanu-Cepoi is head coach of the Somers High School team.

Above: (left) Lakeland-Panas coach, Sorin Cepoi and (right) Somers Coach Teodora Ungureanu Cepoi watching their respective team's athletes

Adding to the cachet of this event was the participation of one of the Lakeland-Panas competitors, Olivia Marricco, who won the 2024-25 season Section 1 All-Around Championship award capturing her third consecutive All-Around Champion title. Her perofrmance at this meet along with her performance throughout the season may potentially bring her a fourth consective Championship title in this, her senior year, an accomplishment that had only been achieved twice before, one of them being former Lakeland-Panas athlete, Brooke Hamilton. In addition to both Brooke and Olivia being Lakeland-Panas athletes, both also trained privately at Dynamic Gymnastics under the guidance of coaches Teodora and Sorin.

Lakeland-Panas gymnast Olivia Marricco dismounting from bars (above) and performing on vault (below)

In final all-around scoring, the Lakeland-Panas team finished as follows:

Olivia Marricco               37.45

Anastasia Iannazzo        35.35

Charlotte Bordes            34.75

Gianna DelPonte            33.50

Caitlin Gallagher            32.35

Izzy Albano                   31.45

Cassie Martirano            14.05 (competed on two events, Floor and Vault)

Above: Brewster High School Gymnast performing her floor routine. Below: Somers gymnast performing on bars.

Photos of the event are posted at: https://wr-photo.com/p983159997