Author: Performance Edge

Freedom Gymnast Sydney Wrighte Named Viva Loudoun Athlete of the Month

South Riding, VA (March 18, 2017) – Please join us in congratulating Freedom’s Sydney Wrighte as the February 2017 Performance Edge/Viva Loudoun Athlete of the Month!

“It’s a great honor to be named Athlete of the Month, I know there are so many competitive athletes in this county, to be recognized is just an honor,” Wrighte said.

A junior with the Eagles, Wrighte has been dominating the gymnastics scene for the last three years. This year she swept all four individual categories–beam, floor, uneven bars and vault–and the all-around at both the conference championship and the regional championship. She then took home her second consecutive VHSL state championship title by winning the all-around at the state meet.

Wrighte won the VHSL 5A State Championship on Feb. 18 at Patriot High School. (Photo © Michael Hylton/Viva Loudoun)

At the VHSL 5A State Championship, held on Feb. 18 at Patriot High School, she took the top spot on the beam, floor and uneven bars, and finished second on vault en route to her impressive victory. Despite feeling extra nerves as the defending state champion, she was able to overcome those emotions as she felt she gave her best performance of the year on the beam and the floor.

“It was only my second time ever going to states individually, so I was still pretty intimidated,” Wrighte said. “There’s so many gymnasts that you don’t see until that meet, you don’t really know what your competition is like, you’re looking at everyone warming up and sizing up your competition, so it’s kind of scary but I’m just proud to come out number one.”

Admittedly, she believes the mental component is the most difficult part of the sport. Yet, the mental hardships only seem to make her better.

“I always put a lot of pressure on myself, I think it’s good to put pressure on yourself because that’s when you get the best out of yourself,” Wrighte said.

Thanks to her outstanding performance at states, she helped Freedom finish in second place as a team, just one year removed from their state title as a group in 2016.

“I know it wasn’t first, but being runner-up in the state is a great accomplishment,” she said.

The team championship during her sophomore season remains her favorite memory as a gymnast, as she was able to share a special moment with her teammates in what is typically a very individual sport. The Eagles have now reached states as a group in each of Wrighte’s three years with the program.

Wrighte has led her team to three straight appearances at the state championship. (Photo © Aaron Wyche/Viva Loudoun)

Wrighte has the rare opportunity to compete for her mother, Laura, who coaches the Eagles. According to the thriving gymnast, her mother has been the biggest influence in her career thus far.

“My mom is a pretty big influence, she coaches gymnastics and I feel like she helps me learn about the sport in every aspect, and I get to see it through her eyes,” she said. “When we’re in the gym practicing or at a meet, I do see her as my mom but she is my coach in that moment, I don’t even call her my mom in practice, I call her Coach Wrighte.”

Under her mom’s guidance, she was able to qualify for states due to her strong performances at the conference meet held in her home gym at Freedom and the VHSL 5A North Region meet at Park View on Feb. 8. Like the state meet, she admits to feeling extra pressure at the regional meet, but was able to rise above the jitters.

“Again, it was a little nerve-racking because we hadn’t seen many of the teams before and we started on floor which isn’t the best rotation, but I felt like as the meet went on my events got better and better,” Wrighte said.

After yet another remarkable season, Wrighte was recognized as the 2017 All-Loudoun Gymnast of the Year, an award she has now won three consecutive years.

“It’s a great honor as well, I had a lot of competition this year, and just to come out number one and be named Gymnast of the Year is a great honor, I don’t even know how words can describe it,” she said.

Wrighte is a three-time All-Loudoun Gymnast of the Year. (Photo © Michael Hylton/Viva Loudoun)

Although she qualified for states individually as a freshman in 2015, she was unable to compete due to a scheduling conflict. With states originally marked for a date in which she could attend, it was moved after a winter storm hit Northern Virginia. The new date coincided with one of her club team events and she missed out on the chance to represent Freedom.

Wrighte’s club team is Hill’s Gymnastics Training Center in Gaithersburg, Md., a program under the helm of legendary coach Kelli Hill. Hill was inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2005, and has coached multiple Olympians, including Dominique Dawes (1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympic Teams).

As a gymnast with high aspirations, she trains over 22 hours per week and has been able to travel all over the country with the sport. She has competed in California, Colorado, Florida, Las Vegas, and more, and hopes to continue with gymnastics at the collegiate level.

“I hope to keep doing it in college, that’s my main goal,” Wrighte said. “I hope to earn a scholarship, but if that doesn’t work I would be perfectly fine to walk-on to a school I love, I just hope to compete.”

Written by Josh Apple
Special to Viva Loudoun
Copyright © Viva Loudoun Media Communications LLC.
All Rights Reserved
@JoshApple1

Athlete Spotlight: Beth Elrefai

Not only do our clients travel the country sporting the Performance Edge logo, they travel across countries!  Check out our client, Beth Elrefai — feeling strong as she supports her mission with Bridges to Community in Nicaragua!  Here’s what Beth has to say: “I have traveled to Nicaragua 7 times since 2009 with a wonderful organization Bridges to Community (a NGO whose mission is to develop the community by working together to build safe, healthy housing, medical centers, schools, clean wells, etc).  Helping with this cause is my passion.  Building a home in a week is hard, physical labor.  After working out twice a week with Performance Edge, I am thrilled to report that I was able to work harder than ever before and came away without being sore and tired! I could lift and carry buckets 5 gallon buckets of concrete which I had never been able to even lift before this year!! It was very empowering to outpace people half my age.  Feeling strong!”

Way to go Beth!

Heritage Gymnast Leah Trepal Named Viva Loudoun Athlete of the Month

Leesburg, VA (February 12, 2017) – Please join us in congratulating Heritage’s Leah Trepal as the January 2017 Performance Edge/Viva Loudoun Athlete of the Month!

This unbelievable gymnast finished first place in the All-Around category in the first eight meets she competed in as a sophomore for Heritage, including all four meets in January. She took the top spot at the Conference 21 East Tournament on Feb. 1 held in her home gym, before going on to finish second on vault and fourth on floor at the VHSL 5A North Region meet at Park View on Feb. 8.

She will be moving on to compete at states at Patriot High School in those two events on Feb. 18.

Trepal won her first eight All-Around competitions this year with Heritage. (Photo © Aaron Wyche/Viva Loudoun)

Trepal is a natural athlete who began playing the sport at the youthful age of four. Since those early days, she has been a member of the Apex Gymnastics club in Leesburg where she is currently a Level 9 gymnast and practices about 16 to 20 hours per week. She also has a background in soccer and is a varsity cheerleader for the Pride.

Although she is a sophomore, Trepal is in her first year of gymnastics competition with Heritage.

“I’ve always really loved gymnastics, and I can’t really see myself not doing it. And doing it this year has really motivated me to continue it and do it next year, and I feel like I’m going to pursue it all the way through high school,” Trepal said.

In four meets in January, Trepal cruised to All-Around victories, which combines the balance beam, floor, uneven bars, and vault, at John Champe with a score of 37.325, Park View with a score of 36.55, Loudoun Valley with a score of 37.275, and a home meet at Heritage with a score of 37.375.

Despite all of her success in January, she admits to feeling extra nerves during the Conference Tournament held in her home gym on Feb. 1, which she won with the best All-Around score of her career, a 37.575. She scored an astounding 9.8 on vault, 9.7 on floor, 9.3 on the balance beam, and an 8.775 on the uneven bars.

Leah Trepal poses during her beam routine in at the Conference 21 Championships. (Photo © Aaron Wyche/Viva Loudoun)

“I felt a lot of pressure going into that meet because all my friends were there,” Trepal said, “and the people at Riverside and Rock Ridge, I compete against them at Apex as well, and they’re all really good gymnasts. And I felt pressure going into vault because that is one of my strongest events and I know my friends are really good at vault too.”

According to Trepal, her best event is vault, an event in which she has achieved a score as high as 9.9 in her booming career. Admittedly, she has room to improve on the bars as she progresses in her tenure with the Pride and with Apex.

The rising star credits Apex with getting her to the level of success that she is now achieving in gymnastics, but also sees her Heritage coach, Jennifer Aubel, as a key mentor in her life.

“I love Coach Aubel, she has really motivated me and helped me become the gymnast that I am,” Trepal said. “And I think that she has really brought our whole team together and we all bond really well. She has done everything she could have done for me, and she makes me feel really good about myself.”

Similarly, Coach Aubel has high praise for her young gymnast, who has had to adjust her club routines to fit the high school requirements.

“Leah is a very talented athlete with beautiful lines and is very elegant in her movements,” Aubel said. “She’s trained for many years at club and wants to be successful in all areas. She’s a good student and a good example to younger gymnasts of what you can achieve when you work hard.”

In four meets in January, Trepal cruised to All-Around victories. (Photo @ Aaron Wyche, Viva Loudoun)

That exemplary hard work over the course of her life has given Trepal opportunities to travel all over the state of Virginia as well as New York, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, and says the New York trip has been the highlight of her career thus far.

“When I went to the New York meet last year, I really enjoyed being in the city, it was so much fun and entertaining to be there and to experience everything there other than just the meet. And the competition was really awesome too,” Trepal said.

Trepal has hopes to one day compete at the collegiate level, and is eyeing JMU, Penn State, and Virginia Tech as possible schools at this point.

However, she still has much more that she wants to achieve for the Pride as she heads into the state meet later this month as just as a sophomore, and Coach Aubel is excited to watch her develop over the next two years in Leesburg.

“I am looking forward to continue working with her over the next couple of seasons,” Aubel said. “I’m glad she decided to participate in high school gymnastics as it has boosted her confidence in her abilities as an athlete.”

Viva Loudoun: We Live For Loudoun™

Written by Josh Apple
Special to Viva Loudoun
Copyright © Viva Loudoun Media Communications LLC.
All Rights Reserved
@JoshApple1

Viva Loudoun has teamed up with Performance Edge  to recognize an outstanding Loudoun County student-athlete, and their exceptional achievements for a given month by naming a Viva Loudoun Athlete of the Month throughout the  2016-17 academic school year!

We are extremely proud to have Performance Edge on our team.  Dave Mikel, CEO of Performance Edge offers exceptional competitive sports training to exceptional athletes who demand it.

The Performance Edge Mission is to prevent injury, optimize strength and power, and instill confidence and self-discipline.