Amherst's Danielle Dudziak breaks through to gymnastics nationals

The long journey has proved to be well worth the effort. Danielle Dudziak will make her national meet debut Sunday at the USA Gymnastics Development Program National Championships in Mesa, Ariz. The Amherst senior is in the Senior F (born before Jan. 19, 2004) category for all-around competition in Level 10. The six-day championship meet, which began Tuesday, serves as the culmination of the competitive season for several of the USA Gymnastics development programs. Many of the nation's elite gymnasts are alumni of the men's and women's championships, which were previously held separately and called the Junior Olympic Nationals. Dudziak has trained in gymnastics since she was 2 and has spent her entire career competing for Great Lakes Gymnastics in Avon Lake. She advanced to the regional level seven or eight times, but this is her first time qualifying for a national-level competition. "Obviously I've been doing it for a long time so I've always wanted to reach my full potential," she said. "I feel like I haven't reached that so I want to keep practicing until I feel like I've done what I could." Dudziak made nationals by taking the seventh and final qualifying berth with a score of 36.275 at the region 5 meet (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio) on April 21 in Illinois. She advanced to regionals with a qualifying score of 36.3 on March 25 at the state meet in Columbus. "Staying healthy throughout the season has been a big key," Dudziak said. "I did have a couple concussions (one in November and one in February) and did have vertigo at one point, but I had no other major physical injuries." Dudziak almost made nationals as a freshman, finishing eighth at regionals and serving as the alternate. She plans to continue her gymnastics career next year at Division III University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. "I just love doing gymnastics in general," she said. "I like competing floor the best and I like practicing beam. That's one of my favorites. For floor I compete my basic tumbling passes, which are double pike, double tuck and then a handspring full front pike, but I practice a round-off back handspring full and a Rudy layout which I plan to compete next year (at college). "My favorite trick for beam, which I don't compete this year but will next year for college, is my triple series, which is a back handspring, layout, layout." Dudziak is the lone Level 10 USA Gymnastics competitor for Great Lakes, with the rest of her practice group Level 8s. There are also no other high school seniors or juniors in her practice group, with the remainder mostly freshmen and sophomores. "A lot of the gymnasts over the last few years that were in my age group they either quit or switched gyms," Dudziak said. Dudziak is looking forward to college. "I'm really excited for next year because I'm going to college at Wisconsin-Whitewater and there I'll be able to compete with a team," she said. "There are only about 84 schools from Divisions I, II and III combined that offer women's gymnastics. You can get a full ride or walk on at a Division I or II school. I could have perhaps walked on at a Division I or II program, but I wanted to be able to compete for my team at each meet. "I wanted to go to a Division III school where there would be more of a team atmosphere and no one would be worrying about scholarship money and losing a spot, so that's why I wanted to go Division III. I'm planning to major in education. I want to teach someday. Both of my parents (Jeff and Marcia) are teachers." Contact Paul Heyse at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.