SUNY Cortland Gymnastics Gianna Mirigliano Rookie of the Year. Every meet this season, with the exception of one, saw a starting first-year student athlete compete all around.
Improvement this year is at an all time high for Gianna, consistently achieving high marks, ranking among the most dependable competitors.
She developed a deep love for gymnastics at a very young age. Growing up in Springfield, Pennsylvania she was always aware that gymnastics required a lot of energy. Having a support system while growing up is crucial, especially if you participate in sports. Gianna’s parents have always been her biggest support system because of their unconditional support. She says “My mom and dad have always come to every single one of my gymnastics competitions.”
Gymnastics, like many other sports, is mostly a cerebral activity. Mental obstacles and hurdles are fairly prevalent, but they are very challenging to go through. Gianna claims that her toughest challenges in gymnastics have been her mental obstacles and the consequences of trying to overcome them.
“Instantly this school and team felt like home to me,” said Mirigliano, when asked why she chose to attend Cortland, “…the atmospheric energy this team has is truly unmatched,” she added.
Therefore, the Cortland Gymnastics team was the perfect fit for her! She is now the NCGA East Rookie of the Year. Being a first year student-athlete, this is a major accomplishment. She has competed all-around at almost every meet so far this season. She is a major asset to the team. Although she has always been a great gymnastics teammate, she has been improving greatly. She had a high of 38.00 All-Around, 9.7 on vault, 9.2 on bars, 9.55 on beam, and 9.725 on floor.
“Being Rookie of the Year has been a privilege and I am so grateful to have had this awesome opportunity especially because I am a freshman.”
Now that she has accomplished so much on this team, she now has new goals. A goal for the future of hers is to complete a Yurchenko one and a half on the vault. As a result of her amazing accomplishments, she headed to Nationals at Winona State University in Minnesota on March 25 in an attempt to win an All-American honor.
Now what does a typical day in life look like for this Rookie of the Year? A typical day in life for Gianna consists of going to class, gymnastics practice, and then relaxing, as well as doing homework. She says if there is any extra time left in her busy day she will hangout with her friends and teammates.
Gymnastics is not the only thing Gianna can do. Outside of gymnastics Gianna has created her own baking company where she bakes cakes for people. Since starting this business, Gianna has received countless amounts of orders, resulting in one of her biggest accomplishments as a young teen, buying her own car.
This incredible athlete, business owner, baker, and full time student, is a quadruple threat and definitely someone to keep an eye on the rest of the season and those to follow.