GymCats Welcome Four New Gymnasts to Program
ARIZONA WILDCATS
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – November 14, 2014 – CONTACT: DANIELLE BRACAMONTE (dbracamonte@email.arizona.edu)
Women’s Gymnastics
Four Gymnasts to join GymCats in 2015
Gymnastics Head Coach Bill Ryden announced that four gymnasts are to join the Arizona gymnastics team next fall.
The Arizona gymnastics team just got a little bit bigger. On Wednesday, Nov. 12, head coach Bill Ryden announced that four young women will be coming to the University of Arizona in 2015. Charle Dembo, Skyler Sheppard, Brittany Robertson and Danielle Spencer are expected to enroll at Arizona beginning in August 2015.
“I’m very excited about the experience, the skill level and the amount of gymnastics these girls are bringing in,” said Ryden. “We certainly have very high level gymnastics walking through the door. I expect all of them to make an immediate impact on the team and bring a lot of polished gymnastics with them.”
Dembo, originally from Newport Beach, Cal., moved to Plano, Tex., in 2007 when she began training at World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, commonly known as W.O.G.A. Dembo was a very accomplished gymnast while competing with W.O.G.A. In 2013 and 2014, she was a Nationals qualifier competing as a Level 10 gymnast.
“I’m excited for the start of this new chapter in my life,” said Dembo. “I can’t wait to see what kind of opportunities the U of A will provide to propel me into the future.”
Sheppard, also a gymnast from Plano, Tex., has been training at W.O.G.A. for four years. In 2013, she was the regional vault champion and qualified for regionals.
“I fell in love with everything Arizona had to offer,” said Sheppard. “The campus and the people are amazing. I am so excited to start my future there.”
Coming all the way from Auckland, New Zealand, Robertson is an accomplished international competitor. Robertson has competed with the North Harbour Gymnastics Centre for the last six years. In 2013, she won first place all-around for New Zealand Secondary Schools. More recently, in 2014 she was fifth all-around at the Australian Nationals, first on beam and floor at the Christchurch Classic, 12th all-around at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland and competed at the World Championships in Nanning, China.
“Visiting the campus this past weekend was amazing,” said Robertson. “Being able to get a world-class education at a top university while experiencing another country and their culture is more than I could have asked for. Meeting the staff and team was so much fun and makes me even more excited to be joining the team.”
Spencer, a New York, N.Y., native, will join the GymCats from Scottsdale, Ariz. She trained at Gold Medal Gymnastics in Scottsdale for the last four years. In 2013, she was a Junior Olympics National Qualifier, regional bars champion and state All-around and bars champion. In 2014, she placed second for bars at regionals and was the state bars champion.
“I’m excited to be staying in Arizona and the school itself offers everything I could have ever hoped for. It has an amazing gymnastics team and athletics department. The team creates an amazing atmosphere. The school also has an amazing biomedical engineering program, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m so excited to be a Wildcat!”
Ryden anticipates that these four gymnasts will be great assets to the team and he is excited for the growth of the program. He can see each gymnast being an all-around competitor at some point in their college career.
“We’re bringing 16 routines in with these committed gymnasts,” said Ryden. “I couldn’t be more excited. It was a good day to be an Arizona GymCat.”
For continued coverage on Arizona women’s gymnastics, follow on Twitter @AZGymnastics, Facebook.com/ArizonaGymnastics and on ArizonaWildcats.com.
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