The gymnastics team scored a season high 194.950 and improved to 5-6 by besting four other teams in Reynolds Coliseum Saturday. The Pack beat North Carolina, Maryland, Towson, and New Hampshire in the Governor’s Cup, a meet that pits the State of North Carolina against colleges from Maryland.
As the home team, the Pack began the night on vault. The team notched a 49.250 on this event – the second best performance on vault in school history. Junior Taylor Seaman’s 9.925 on the event was the second highest individual score on the event in school history.
According to coach Mark Stevenson, the team is composed of good vaulters and, with the help of assistant coach Todd Henry, the team is always prepared.
“We’ve got some really talented athletes that are very powerful and quick and that is what you have to be to be a good vaulter,” Stevenson said. “They’re just doing a very nice job on vaulting and I think Todd has done a good job having them prepared. They just come in and do their job.”
The Pack then moved to bars and posted another season high with a 48.725. Seaman and sophomore Brittney Hardiman lead the team on the event as both posted a 9.800. The Pack then had a bye before heading to the beam. According to Hardiman, the team used the intermission as a stress-free break in the action.
“We pretty much just relaxed in the locker room. We tried to keep our momentum up because we had started off really well and we didn’t want to lose it going into the last two events,” Hardiman said. “It is honestly good practice for us for EAGL and Regionals because we are going to have to do the same thing.”
State posted another season high on beam with a 48.075. On the event the team had two falls with one counting against the team. This was the only event of the night in which the Pack had a fall count in the competition. According to Seaman the one fall is an improvement on the season and the falls came from two solid competitors that were just off on the event.
“The two girls that fell on beam are our most consistent girls. It wasn’t a confidence thing, it wasn’t like they weren’t going hard, they were off and they couldn’t do anything about it,” Seaman said. “So you can’t blame them for that. I think that we’ve just put our minds to it in practice and just decided that we aren’t going to fall anymore.”
The Pack then moved to floor where the team was lead by the 9.900 of Seaman and the 9.825 of freshman Brook Barr. Saturday, 16 of the team’s 24 routines were performed by underclassmen with eight being performed by freshmen. According to Stevenson, all of the freshmen are meeting his expectations and are the future leaders of the team.
“We are a predominantly freshmen team so for us, all of our freshmen, to me, are doing a great job. We had rookie of the week with Jessica Panza and then she twisted her ankle. Then Brooke won two in a row,” Stevenson said. “What it tells you generally is our freshmen are doing a good job for us and they’re, in our conference, as good as they come. That is what we want because those kids are going to be, over the next couple of years, our leaders, and they are going to be good ones.”
