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scholarships. She will be studying Journalism/
Public Relations while looking toward law
school. She plans to pursue law to help make a
difference in the world and give people a voice.
“Gymnastics has been a huge part of my life.
It has shaped me into the person I am today,”
says Emily. “It has done more than just given
me the opportunity to achieve greatness in the
sport, but has taught me life lessons along the
way. I have overcome adversity, and learned
how to succeed at anything I put my mind to.”
Karla Sue Kronpreya Frank, daughter of
Kitima and Fred Frank, has lived in Mars for
the past seven years. Karla is a senior at Mars
Area High School where she’s involved in Key
Club, Interact Club, Future Engineers Club,
Future Medical Providers Club and Robotics.
“I was very active as a child and have always
enjoyed sports,” says Karla. Besides gymnastics,
she participated in swimming, golfing,
bowling, tennis, ice skating and taekwondo.
Karla started gymnastics when she
was 4 years old. She began practicing at
Westmoreland Gymnastics, then moved to
Flip City Gymnastics and currently attends
X-Cel Gymnastics. She coaches with Lindsey
Stancil and Nate Culichia, and is a Level 10
gymnast on the Xquisite Competitive Team.
In addition to traveling across the United States
to compete, Karla has traveled with her coaches to
Thailand and Malaysia to compete internationally.
“I had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of
the Thai National Gymnastics Team,” she says.
“These two international competitions were some
favorite moments of my gymnastics career.”
In 2015, Karla competed in the Regional and
State Championships, placing second in bars
and balance beam. In 2016, she was a Level 10
State qualifier, and took first place on the balance
beam in Twistars. She won second place at the
Parkettes Invitational on the balance beam in
2017, in addition to being a State and Regional
qualifier and accepted to the Thai National Team.
Most recently, Karla took fourth place on the
balance beam at the Atlanta Crown competition.
“Gymnastics is important to me because of
the values and meaning it brings into my life,”
says Karla. “I have learned so much, not only
about gymnastics, but about life as well. It has
taught me many things like how to be strong
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during hard times and how to be a leader and a good
role model. It has also taught me the true meaning
of determination, hard work, and so much more.”
Upon graduation from high school, Karla will
attend the University of Pittsburgh on scholarship to
continue her academic and gymnastics careers. She
will be a walk-on Pitt gymnast, and will be majoring in
biomedical engineering. She hopes to continue on to
medical school to pursue a career as a pediatrician.
Amy Krueger, daughter of Andrew and Patricia
Krueger, has lived in Cranberry Township her whole
life. Amy attends Vincentian Academy in McCandless
where she’s part of the National Honors Society
and serves as Treasurer. She’s also a member of the
Science National Honors Society, and helped start
an engineering club at school. Her favorite subject
is chemistry because she likes the math aspect of
it and being able to do hands-on experiments.
“I started gymnastics when I was 3 years old, in
Mommy and Me classes and now I am on the Xquisite
Competitive Team at X-Cel Gymnastics,” says Amy.
She studies with Lindsey Stancil and Nate Culichia.
“Gymnastics requires very intense training,” she
continues. “Not only do we train in the gym, but we
also need to make sure we take care of ourselves outside
of the gym. We need to make sure that we are getting
enough sleep and eating the right kinds of food that will
help lead us to have a good and productive practice.”
Amy was a JO National Qualifier in 2016, a Level 9
Eastern National Qualifier in 2015, a Level 10 Regional
Qualifier from 2016-2018 and a Level 9 Regional
Qualifier in 2014 and 2015. In 2017, she won second
place on Vault in the Level 10 Regional Championships.
Amy will be continuing her gymnastics career
at Cornell University. She plans to study Chemical
Engineering. “I chose Cornell because I wanted to go
somewhere that had very strong academics but still
D1 gymnastics,” she says. “Cornell had been my dream
school since I was in 9th grade as I knew I would get a
great education and the campus is absolutely beautiful.”
“Gymnastics is important to me because it shaped
me into the person I am today,” says Amy. “It has taught
me so many valuable life lessons that I will use for the
rest of my life, like discipline and time management.
Gymnastics has taught me it’s OK to not be perfect
and to fail and have to overcome things. Although I
may not have had what one would consider normal
teenage years because of my heavy practice schedules, I
wouldn’t trade my time in gymnastics for anything.” ■