The gymnastics team started the season Friday with a solid posting in Reynolds Coliseum behind freshman Jess Panza and junior Taylor Seaman. Panza finished first on both vault and beam and Seaman took first on bars, floor and the all-around. According to coach Mark Stevenson, the score was a good way for the Wolfpack to launch its season.

“I think the most important thing [the victory] does is it sets a plateau for us to get better from. We’re not starting from a 187 or a 188; we are starting from almost a 193,” coach Stevenson said. “So for us, we need to increase that by a minimum of three points throughout the season. So by the end of the season we want to be scoring a 196.”

The Pack was able to minimize its falls through the efforts of the entire team. When someone fell, the rest of the team stepped up to cover.

“Everyone came together,” Panza said. “When someone fell, someone made up for them. Everybody’s falls didnít even matter because someone was there to cover them.”

The team had a mistake on all four events, but none counted in the competition.

“The most important thing I saw was the ability not to give up when one of their teammates missed. It is really easy for someone to miss and then for the next person to snowball and that didn’t happen. We had a mistake on vaulting, we had a mistake on floor, we had a mistake on beam, had a mistake on bars but the rest of the kids after that one mistake did what they were supposed to do and were successful,” Stevenson said. “The bottom line for this meet is we didn’t count a fall in the completion. One of our goals is to have x number of meets in a season where we count no falls. We have already started out with one step to our goal which is a tremendous step in your opening meet.”

The first meet showed several Pack competitors step up into leadership roles on the team. Panza said junior Taylor Seaman is leading the team by example.

“Taylor [Seaman] is definitely stepping up as the team leader,” Panza said. “We have so much respect for her, and she sets such a great example. For example, she fell on beam and stepped on the floor like nothing had even happened.”

According to junior Taylor Seaman, the team will use the win to inspire the team to work in practice.

“I feel like for the first meet we did really well, everybody did their job,” Seaman said. “We definitely have more things to improve on, so it gives us a boost to work in practice.  We saw our potential, and we definitely want to do better.”

The Wolfpack will look for continued success this Friday when the team travels to take on No. 8 Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.