Cedar Creek Fourth-Grader Advances to Gymnastics Regionals

A fourth-grader from Cedar Creek Elementary School has earned a spot competing at a regional gymnastics competition.

Nicholas Balo, 10, will compete on the pommel horse and still rings at the USA Gymnastics regional competition at Temple University on April 28, after taking first place in both events at the USA Gymnastics New Jersey state competition last weekend at Colts Neck High School.

Nicholas, who trains at Monmouth Gymnastics Academy under coach Yuriy Aminov, competes at Level 6 in the 8-9 group. His scores of 15.600 on the pommel horse and 15.000 on the rings were each two-tenths of a point better than the second-place finisher in those events. Nicholas was fifth on the parallel bars and eighth on the vault, for a sixth-place finish in the all-around competition.