The United States Gymnastics Federation Level Ten New York State Championships was held on Long Island last week at the Phoenix Gymnastics Center in Bethpage. One of Garden City's hometown competitors came back with some well-deserved hardware. Melissa Forziat medaled in third place in the floor exercise and fourth place on the balance beam, and turned in an All-Around score that easily qualified her to compete at the Northeast Region Six Championships later this month at the University of Massachusetts.

Forziat, currently a senior at Garden City High School, is no stranger to state-level competition. Back in February, Forziat had garnered All-Conference and All-County honors as a state qualifier for her high school team. She has qualified for and brought back medals from USGF New York state championship meets each of the past nine years. Nevertheless, she seemed to be particularly pleased after this one. "This was a really big meet for me," she confided to us after the dust had settled. "I wanted to help my team. I feel as though I actually contributed." Indeed, she did. Her scores were instrumental in assisting her team from the Mid-Island Gymnastic Center in Hicksville to a fourth-place finish in New York.

Her floor exercise routine is riveting. She cut her own music from the theme from the movie Charade, and she choreographed the routine, so she was understandably pleased not only at her score (9.175), but also by the fact that her score was able to hold up. She had been the fourth person to perform in this event, and scores typically are low in the early rotations supposedly to leave the judges room to reward later performances that may be superior as the day progresses. With over 50 competitors in the meet, the impression that Forziat had left with the judges must have been a deep one.

Her balance beam routine is not for the fainthearted, but over the years she has had the uncanny ability to make it seem as though she was performing on a sidewalk. Her vault scores are consistently high, but she was especially happy with her performance on the uneven bars. "During warm-ups I almost yanked the shoulders right off my body," she laughed. "But during the meet it was giant, giant, double-back, land, stick. It was wonderful."

Her coaches agreed that she had a terrific meet, and that she was especially solid in the pressure-prone leadoff position for her team. As the day progressed they knew that she was doing well, but strangely enough she doesn't want to hear her own scores until the end. We asked Melissa about this. "I like to go through the meet based on how I feel," she told us. "After the meet I see how the judges felt." "She's a purist," commented Mid-Island owner-head coach Joel Schaefer with a smile. "It's so refreshing."

It is, indeed. We wish her good fortune at the Regional Championships April 20 through the 22nd.