BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio — Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School’s girl’s gymnastic team claimed its 20th consecutive state championship title this year in Hilliard, Ohio.
The school won its first state title in 1994. As head coach, Maria Schneider said, “this tradition comes from within our city.”
Schneider admitted this year was challenging as a haul of seniors graduated last year. Yet, the 2023 season brought about a young team willing to do whatever it takes to be great and win in the last rotation while behind in scoring, according to Schneider.
“When you put them on paper, they’re not your top level, all level 10 gymnasts, [but] they continued to improve every week and we would ask them to try something new, add more difficulty to their routine,” she said.
One of the team’s sophomore members, Gianna Ravagnani, clutched the win with a big finish on the vault.
Teammate and senior, Ella Shaheen, recalls “we were really nervous before but I know we all believed that we could, but we didn’t know if it would actually happen this year. Right when Gianna landed her vote we knew that we won and we were really excited.”
