State champ and climbing
CRANBERRY TWP — Olivia Kisiday has a true love of gymnastics and the results to show for it.
The 12-year old Cranberry Township resident earned a pair of Level 8 state titles in the uneven bars and all-around last month.
“The uneven bars is my favorite event and I knew if I hit my routine, I could win a state title,” said Kisiday. “But winning the all-around was a big surprise. Floor (exercise) is usually not a strong event for me, but I ended up doing very well.”
Kisiday, who trains at Jewart’s Gymnastics, placed second in balance beam and vault and third in floor exercise.
“Olivia had a phenomenal effort,” said one of her coaches, Lainy Carslaw. “Level 8 is a hard age group to compete in and she had the best all-around score (38.3) in the entire meet, no matter the age.”
Kisiday’s team, the Pittsburgh Northstars, won the team title.
“We were all really excited about that,” she said. “It had been a long time since the Northstars won a state title and our coaches were so proud of us.”
Kisiday was preparing for the Region 7 meet last week when she suffered a sprained left ankle in practice. She still competed at the event last weekend in Doylestown, but was not close to 100 percent. She was still able to medal in the uneven bars competition and helped Pennsylvania place third out of six teams.
“It was really painful to compete, but my coaches said we’d take it one event at a time,” she said. “No matter what, I wasn’t going to give up the regional meet.”
Kisiday took up gymnastics at the age of three. Her first state title came in the balance beam two years ago while competing at Level 7.
Level 8 is to date the only one Kisiday has had to repeat due to a broken foot last summer. Her love of the sport continues to grow with each year.
“Every day, it’s something different,” she said of gymnastics. “You can try new things and it makes you want to come back and improve.”
Kisiday trains four hours every Monday and Wednesday through Saturday. Some weeks, she can even be found at the gym on Sunday and Tuesday.
Carslaw sees the desire Kisiday brings to practice.
“She’s very hard on herself and is a perfectionist in every sense of the word,” she said. “She’s an incredibly talented kid.”
Kisiday hopes to be competing at Level 9 next fall. She plans on attending a gymnastics camp at Penn State University and another one in the Pocono Mountains this summer.
“I love to train,” said Kisiday. “Competitions can be nerve-wracking, but it’s like that for all gymnasts.”
