Bishop Ahr's Agarwala is the Home News Tribune Gymnast of Year

In the malls and hallways, Ariyana Agarwala looks like your average high school sophomore with her 5-foot-4 frame. When it comes to gymnastics, however, she’s like a 7-foot center.

Well, maybe she’s not quite a giant, but in a sport that typically features shorter competitors, Agarwala said she’s often the tallest one on the mats.

"She by no means is extra tall or anything," said Bishop Ahr assistant coach Caitlin Miller with a laugh. "It certainly doesn’t hinder anything. It just helps some of the things that she does look so much easier than it actually is. She looks very airy. She kind of floats through. She has these arms and legs that when she dances on beam and floor, it really adds an extra special kind of characteristic, even recognizing that it’s Ariyana’s gymnastics.”

READ: BISHOP AHR PLACES THIRD AT NJSIAA GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Agarwala and her ethereal style had huge performances this season for Bishop Ahr. She is the Home News Tribune Gymnast of the Year for the second year in a row.

Her accomplishments include repeating as the all-around winner at the Greater Middlesex Conference championships (38.3) and in North Group II (37.95), as well as finishing fourth in the all-around at the NJSIAA individual state championships (38.2). Notably, she placed in the Top 10 in each of the four individual events — tied for third in beam, tied for seventh in the floor and in the uneven bars and ninth in vault.

While she ended strong, her season started slowly. In the spring, Agarwala suffered a slight fracture in her pelvis while training for the club national tournament. The hard-working Agarwala could only do abdominal workouts during the summer.

She was cleared for Bishop Ahr’s August practices under doctor’s orders to train “under moderation and under pain tolerance.”

“I was so nervous that it was going to start hurting again, but I guess the four months were enough,” Agarwala said. “It wasn’t really painful, honestly. It was more like, mentally I thought that it was going to start hurting again. … It was kind of like, in the sense of a sleeping muscle because I hadn’t used it in that long amount of time.

"So as soon as I started doing splits and stuff again, it was getting stretched and trying to get back into the position it was. So that’s when it started to hurt, but then it was more like being sore. And then it got better. And now it’s even stronger. I feel like it’s stronger than it was before.”

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By the GMC Championships on Oct. 23, she was fully back and won the vault (9.775) and bars (9.5), and tied for first in beam with J.P. Stevens’ Shannon Gregory (9.65). The Trojans, led by head coach Brant Lutska, won their second consecutive team title and 17th overall.

At the North Group II sectional on Nov. 5, Bishop Ahr captured the team title and Agarwala won the all-around, vault (9.65) and beam (9.65), and finished third in bars (9.475). Her teammates also had postseason success, notably Skylar Davisson, who took 12th in the state all-around.

While Agarwala also trains at Action Gymnastics Academy in Millstone, she’s embraced competing for her high school team, which “brings a very energetic vibe when you’re cheering for each other and it’s fun.”

“She’s very positive,” Miller said. “One of her favorite things to do during the season is she makes up handshakes with every single one of the girls on the team. So that way, they each kind of have their own little thing together. … She’s very bubbly, even when she’s having a rough day.

"It’s a maturity thing, too, because she does a really good job at pushing past some of those daily hurdles and obstacles that we all have. But I would just say in general, of course, she’s fun. We love having her on the team. She’s always smiling.”

Miller, who graduated from Bishop Ahr in 2005 and helped the school win two team state championships, said that Agarwala upgraded many of her routines from last season. Miller noted that “she looks a little bit taller than the rest of the girls. So she has these really long, we call them her lines. So when she does certain skills, she executes them so tightly and she also is really good at putting on a clean performance.”

Some of her extensions, Miller added, “are truly some of the prettiest that I’ve seen as a coach.”

Indeed, gymnasts are often several inches shorter than Agarwala. Look at the 2016 U.S. Olympic team, in which Old Bridge’s Laurie Hernandez is 5-foot, and Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas are both under 5-feet.

Of course, height is something you can’t control, and Agarwala simply goes about her training. She points to former Olympian Nastia Liukin as a gymnast that was considered tall.

“I actually like it,” said Agarwala, who also plays the piano and violin. “I feel like it, kind of in a sense, makes you look longer and like stretched. … Honestly, like everyone could do gymnastics. You could be a different body type. It just looks different. And it doesn’t affect anything at all. Just people have different bodies and it works for everyone, so it’s good to have different varieties.”

Agarwala also brings leadership to the Edison school and was one of the team’s captains despite being an underclassman.

“As a sophomore, to be able to do that and lead her peers by example,” Miller said. “She certainly has a really bright two more years with us, thank goodness.”

2016 GMC ALL-CONFERENCE/ALL-DIVISION

As selected by the coaches

ALL-CONFERENCE

All-Around – Ariyana Agarwala, Bishop Ahr

Vault – Skylar Davisson, Bishop Ahr

Uneven Bars – Shannon Gregory, JP Stevens

Balance Beam – Jennifer Pasram, Old Bridge

Floor Exercise – Allison Graves, South Plainfield

At Large – Troi Marshall, Bishop Ahr; Upasna Parikh, Bishop Ahr; Isabella Alcaraz, South Brunswick; Alexandria Phipps, Old Bridge; Brianna Spadavecchia, South Plainfield; Samantha Obolsky, Bishop Ahr; Amy Zavecz, East Brunswick

Coach of the Year: Brant Lutska, Bishop Ahr

Assistant Coach of the Year: Elyse Kanaley, South Plainfield (Presented by the GMC Gymnastic Coaches)

Sportsmanship: East Brunswick

Conference Champion: Bishop Ahr

Conference Runner-Up: South Plainfield