Zeffiro becomes first Panther to achieve perfection

While most people were gone over spring break, the Pitt gymnastics team was hard at work,… While most people were gone over spring break, the Pitt gymnastics team was hard at work, continuing its record-setting ways in its final three meets of the season, including one gymnast’s brush with perfection.

Alyse Zeffiro, a senior who has already etched her name in the Pitt record books numerous times, finally reached one of her goals, recording not one, but two perfect 10 scores in her final meet at Fitzgerald Field House on March 9, achieving the feat on vault and floor exercise.

Two weeks prior, after senior night against Penn State, head coach Debbie Yohman expressed her disappointment that Zeffiro had not scored a 10 on the floor that night.

“The performance was good enough for a 10,” Yohman said then, “but I think Alyse can get one another time.”

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Zeffiro said. “It’s something I’ve worked so hard to accomplish, and to finally do it as a senior is great. The one on floor means a lot to me because it’s my favorite event and I was really close four or five times. To finally do it means so much.”

As a result of her perfect scores, Zeffiro was named East Atlantic Gymnastics League Specialist of the Week for the third time this season.

Zeffiro’s midweek accomplishment came three days after the Panthers finished third out of five teams in the Nation’s Capital Cup in Washington, D.C., on March 6. Pitt’s team score of 193.675 placed them behind hosts George Washington (195.975) and EAGL opponent Towson (194.675).

Falls on the balance beam — a problem the Panthers seemed to have put behind them in their school-record performance against Penn State — returned, as three of the six competing gymnasts fell, putting scores of 9.2 and 9.175 in Pitt’s team score.

Zeffiro won the individual title on floor, scoring a 9.95, which beat out four gymnasts with 9.9s, including her senior teammate Erika Goldberg. Other placing performances came from sophomore Roslyn Singleton, who tied for second on beam with a 9.85, and senior Diandra O’Connor, whose 38.475 was fourth in the all-around competition.

The Tuesday tri-meet that saw Zeffiro’s perfect scores wasn’t as perfect for the team. Despite setting a school-record score of 196.525, Pitt fell to a score of 197.4 posted by West Virginia — a team the Panthers tied with in January — but did beat the 191.7 score of James Madison, defeating the Dukes for the second time this season.

Zeffiro’s 10s overshadowed the accomplishments of her teammates — Goldberg, who tied the old school record of 9.95 on floor, and O’Connor, who reached fifth all-time on the Pitt scoring list with 1,268.575 career points.

Pitt then closed out its regular season on Friday in College Park, Md., where the Panthers scored 195.7 as a team, placing them second behind North Carolina State (197.125), and ahead of host Maryland (195.35) and visiting Air Force (192.8).

A 9.95 on floor and a 9.9 on vault increased Zeffiro’s school record to 16 scores of 9.9 or better for her career. O’Connor, now competing regularly in the all-around after overcoming a midseason illness, scored 38.5, placing her sixth in the meet and moving her into fourth on the career scoring list with 1,307.075 points.

Pitt concluded its regular season with a 13-8-1 overall record and a 4-4-1 league mark. Pitt competes next in the eight-team EAGL championships, to be held at the Petersen Events Center Saturday at 6 p.m.