Balance crucial for Avon multisport gymnasts Alyssa Chonko, Ally Rennette and Maddie Geiger

Finding high school gymnasts can be tough. While schools such as Avon have plenty of candidates with private club experience, it can still be difficult to fill out an entire lineup Fortunately for the Eagles, they have a group of multisport athletes ready to help. Senior Alyssa Chonko, junior Ally Rennette and freshman Maddie Geiger are three key team members on the gymnastics team who also play other sports. Chonko juggles gymnastics with diving for the varsity swimming and diving team, while Rennette competes in indoor track. The team's No. 1 all-around athlete, Geiger, probably spends the most time in the gym, training some 20 hours per week. She also run track in the spring. "For diving we practice at Oberlin College Monday through Friday," Chonko said. "For gymnastics, we practice Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. I miss one gymnastics practice to go to diving and I miss one diving practice to go to gymnastics practice. With diving and gymnastics they're kind of related because you're doing flipping in both, so it kind of helps to do both. It makes me a stronger athlete." Chonko was a Division I district qualifier in diving last year and finished sixth at the Southwestern Conference meet. She specializes primarily in vault, bars and floor for the gymnastics team. The same skill set helps Chonko when the spring season rolls around since she is a pole vaulter on the track team, where her best is 9 feet, 6 inches. "I first started tumbling for gymnastics when I was age 2," said Chonko, who plans to major in nursing in college and is considering Ohio State, Kentucky, Toledo and Bowling Green. "I trained at Great Lakes Gymnastics club until about freshman year before I switched for X-treme Gymnastics, when I began competing for the high school team. I first decided to give diving a try when I overheard two of my gymnastics teammates talking about it. I thought it sounded cool so I decided to try it." Rennette, a captain on the gymnastics team, has added indoor track to her winter season for the first time. She's run outdoor track the past two springs and plans to continue this spring. "All my (winter) coaches are pretty understanding with everything that's going on," Rennette said. "It's been working out pretty well. I'm able to balance things. On average I'm practicing gymnastics three days a week, plus one gymnastics meet. Indoor track practice is Monday through Friday with meets on Saturdays." Rennette, who competes in the all-around, began gymnastics in fourth grade. She runs the 200- and 400-meter dashes in track while also competing in the high jump and on relays. "Both of the sports are super rewarding," Rennette said. "It's such a great feeling to hit in all four events in a gymnastics meet. For track, I like the feeling of racing past each other. You need to just trust in what you're doing with gymnastics. For track I just like the mental aspect." Geiger won the all-around with a score of 34.55 on Jan. 12 against Westlake, Cuyahoga Falls and Nordonia to help the Eagles post a team-record score of 127.85. She tied for first in vault (8.60), was second in balance beam (9.0) and the uneven parallel bars (8.15) and fourth in the floor exercise (8.80). Like Chonko, Geiger began gymnastics at Great Lakes when she was just 3 before switching over to X-treme Gymnastics three years ago. "I've really enjoyed gymnastics," said Geiger, a sprinter on the track team. "It's another way to make friends with people you don't see at school and to challenge yourself. You can always learn harder skills." Although she likes all four events in gymnastics, vault and bars are her favorites. "I throw a Yurchenko tuck for my vault (9.6 start value)," she said. "Giants on the high bar and clear hip handstand. I'm just trying to be the best that I can. I really enjoy it. I just want to keep getting better, doing more fun skills." Not surprisingly, Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles is her No. 1 role model. "A lot of it is my teammates," Geiger said of why she enjoys gymnastics. "They keep it fun. I like hanging out with them." Contact Paul Heyse at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.