The Columbia girls gymnastics team has gotten off to a great start this season. That trend continued Friday evening at South Orange Middle School. The Red and Black gymnasts outscored the visiting Union Catholic girls 82.5 - 72.3 to remain unbeaten this season at 3-0.

“Being that we have a small team, we are happily surprised that we’ve done so well,” said seventh year head coach Beryl Roman. “These girls are really rising to the occasion to pull through and helped us get the wins over the last few weeks.”

The locals shined in the vault and floor events, scoring 22.35 and 22 combined points, respectively. In the bars, they outscored the competitors 18.6 - 11.95 and in the beam the Cougars were outdone, 20.05-19.55.  Columbia's starters included Isabelle Friedman, Soleil Garnau and Samantha Thompson.

It should be noted that the visiting girls competed with just two gymnasts in both the bars and the floor event. Judges count the best three scores from each team out of a maximum five competitors for each event and each squad. So in two events Union Catholic was a score short.

At 3-0, and Ramapo up next, the Cougars are looking at their biggest challenge yet this season and their first road meet of the fall.

With the early season success, the locals may be able to start thinking about qualifying for state sectionals, which coach Roman said was one of their goals this season. They have a small team of just seven girls, three of whom are freshmen, so health is the biggest factor.

“Our upperclassmen are very seasoned and very competitive, so if we stay healthy, we’ll be fine,” Roman said.