The gymnastics team placed second in its first home meet of the season on Sunday at Reynolds Coliseum. Auburn placed first, followed by State, George Washington and Texas Woman’s University.

The Pack finished with a team score of 195.375, an improvement on its other performances so far this season.

“This is our first score available to us this year to take us on to nationals,” head coach Mark Stevenson said. “The other night [Friday] we only went 192.7, and that’s not a good enough score to get us where we need to be.”

N.C. State finished first in the floor exercise with a score of 49.125, claiming the top three individual spots. Freshman Brittney Hardiman tied for third with a 9.8. Sophomore Taylor Seaman took second with a 9.875, and senior Leigha Hancock placed first with a 9.95 score.

“Her floor score will rank her in the top two or three spots in our program of 28 years,” Stevenson said. “Obviously a beautiful set.”

Hancock attributed the performance in part to the support of the team.

“The people in front of me helped me a lot,” Hancock said. “When they do better, the scores tend to rise. They all did good, so I just went out there and had a good time.”

The Pack finished second in all three of the other team events: the vault, the uneven parallel bars and the balance beam. Hardiman finished tied for second individually in the vault with a 9.875, while in the bars Seaman tied for third with a 9.825 and senior Kelsey Lee tied for first with a 9.85.

“When I stuck that dismount, I wanted to cry,” Lee said. “I was really excited because I’ve been working so hard on it.”

Overall, the performance was quite pleasing, according to Stevenson.

“The nature of gymnastics is sure, you want to win, but the idea is to get a score that takes you on to nationals,” he said. “So this was really our first step toward what we have to accomplish at the end of the year.”

Stevenson also noted that such a solid showing early in the season is promising in itself.

“We had a couple little dings here and there that cost us our 196 and possibly a chance to win the meet,” he said. “But it’s really early in the season. We’ve got a lot of meets left. We’ll keep plugging along, and I think we’ll be where we’re supposed to be when it’s time.”

Also pleasing to some of the gymnasts was the effort of the team as a whole.

“We really worked as a team today,” Hancock said. “There was team unity here, and it’s always easier coming back home. We’ve been waiting to come home.”

According to Lee, “every single gymnast had their head in the game, and we did awesome.”