Chance meeting of gymnasts bridges more than 50 year

04/19/2022 

SUNY Cortland gymnasts separated by more than half a century came together late last month, thanks to a chance encounter in a Cortland restaurant.

SUNY Cortland’s three competitors in the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association East Region Championship, held at Ithaca College March 26,  decided to have dinner at Mangia, an Italian restaurant on Tompkins Street, after the competition.

“We got a little table in a back room,” said head coach Sulekha Modi Zaug ’00, M ’02.

“I thought I heard someone mention a gymnastic word, and then these two women at another table came over and introduced themselves,” she said.

The women were retired physical education teachers and former Red Dragon gymnasts Debra DeForest Wein ’72 and Donna Suriano Frederick ’72.  The former teammates, both of whom live in the Albany, N.Y. area, had made the nearly three-hour trip to Ithaca to watch the competition.

“They were really honored,” Modi Zaug said of the gymnasts: junior Abby Bang of Montgomery, Massachusetts; senior Kamryn Rodriguez of Middletown, N.Y., and first-year student Rianna Adams of South Setauket, N.Y.  “They were surprised that the women knew their names and followed them.”

Both Wein and Frederick were members of one of Cortland’s earliest intercollegiate women’s gymnastics teams and were excited to have witnessed Adams become the university’s newest All American by placing sixth on the uneven parallel bars out of 45 competitors at the championship

“Rianna’s bar routine was just what she needed to continue on with a very bright future,” Modi Zaug said. “Abby and Kam competed so well and just missed the All-American mark. It was a great day of gymnastics and I’m glad our alumni were there.”

The accidental introduction turned into a table conversation about what collegiate gymnastics was like in 1971, when Wein and Frederick competed, and how far the sport has come over the course of 50 years.

Modi Zaug herself was a three-time national champion on the uneven bars, becoming the first gymnast in the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) to win three individual titles in the same event. The All-American was inducted into the NCGA Hall of Fame in 2018, and took the helm of her alma mater’s gymnastics team in 2019.

“I believe they follow the sport whenever they can,” Modi Zaug said of Wein and Frederick. “The sport never really leaves you. It is so difficult and mentally and physically challenging. It is so much a part of your life, and you start so young. Once you’re in that sport, you never really let go.”