Penn-Trafford gymnast Adamik balances fun, competition at high school level

By: Jerin Steele
Friday, February 21, 2020 | 6:02 PM

A couple of years ago, Lacey Adamik gave up the everyday grind of training for competitive USA gymnastics, but as time went on, she started to miss the sport.

With the convincing of some friends, Adamik got back into gymnastics at the high school level this year representing Penn-Trafford.

She’s glad she made that decision, because in her first big meet in nearly two years, she took home some hardware.

Adamik, a sophomore, won gold on beam in the Intermediate II division Saturday at the WPIAL individual gymnastics championships at Moon.

“It was really nice,” Adamik said. “They announce everyone’s scores as they go up (to the podium), and listening to the scores, I knew mine was higher. They kept going up the list and once they announced second place and the score was still lower than mine, I knew I had it.

“I hadn’t attended a meet in a while, so it felt good to win something again and be a part of a competition again.”

Adamik posted a score of 8.767 to edge Greensburg Salem’s Holly Johnson, who finished at 8.633.

After having some nerves to begin the day, Adamik said she settled in and felt good about her performance on beam.

“When I finished, I thought I could place high, but I wasn’t completely sure I was going to get first because I didn’t exactly hit everything,” Adamik said. “But I had some higher-level skills in my routine, and that brought my score up. I knew that would help me.”

Adamik also competed on floor, where she placed 26th. She felt she did well with her routine but said she lacked some of the higher-level skills that improve scores.

Adamik was 3 when she started in gymnastics. She trained and competed for years as a USAG gymnast. She said the time needed to stay competitive in USAG became too demanding for her schedule.

After she stopped competing, she still went to her home gym, Allison Biondi Gymnastics in Irwin, to work out. That’s where friends and fellow gymnasts who attend Norwin convinced her to try high school gymnastics.

“They said it was very fun, there’s not as much pressure, and that all girls were really friendly. So I thought I’d do that to stay in the sport and something that’s not as serious as USAG,” Adamik said. “As high school competitors, we kind of get to set when we want to come in and pretty much make our own practice schedules.”

Adamik will likely have to bump up to Intermediate I in the future, because her score on beam at WPIALs was higher than the Intermediate II average. She is hopeful to qualify in all four events — beam, vault, floor and bars — and compete for an all-around title.

Doing high school gymnastics started with some encouragement, and now she wants to pay it forward and help others get involved at the WPIAL level.

“I know some people at Penn-Trafford that do gymnastics, but they don’t really know where to go for it because they don’t want to do club gymnastics,” Adamik said. “I think high school gymnastics is a good opportunity for them.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

Tags: Penn-Trafford