Gymnastics falls short of intended goals at intrasquad meet
Despite a disappointing 190.825 score Friday in the CMU gymnastics intrasquad meet, sophomore Samantha Piotrowski knows that the team is taking a step in the right direction.
“It was a positive stepping stone,” said Piotrowski. “We definitely had a lot of nerves and butterflies, but we took them in ways we didn’t want to.”
Although striving for a total mark of 194, several falls on the beam and missed tumbling passes in the floor exercise led to the team falling short of its target score.
Head coach Jerry Reighard said the team’s lack of focus at times in the meet led to lower than expected scores.
“Those things cost us a tenth to three-tenths, and if you want to be the caliber team I think we're going to be, you can’t do that,” Reighard said.
The team notched its highest score of the evening on the vault with 48.15, followed by a 47.95 on bars and a 47.025 score on the beam. The final event of the night was the floor, where it finished with a total of 47.7.
Leading the meet for the Chippewas was sophomore Brittney Taylor, who won the vault event with a 9.75 score. Junior Kristin Teubner also contributed a 9.75 on the uneven bars. Making a strong showing on the FX was senior Andrea De La Garza, who posted the only other 9.7 of the night.
The meet also featured four new freshmen -- Brittany Petzold, Morgan Byrd, Emily Heinz and Alyssa Wilson.
Petzold led the newcomers' scoring, winning the all-around portion of the meet with a 38.3. Wilson’s high score came on the bars with a 9.6, while Hines notched her highest score on the floor with a 9.625.
Reighard said he was pleased with the performances of the freshman, including their efforts on the FX.
“I think all three (freshman) did well,” Reighard said. “I was very surprised we had three freshmen in the starting four lineups, so that says a lot about for those three.”
With the next competition not until after the New Year, the team will have the next several weeks to correct mistakes.
Another positive Reighard said was that the meet was entirely unspotted and no gymnast required any hand spots throughout the night. He said that was something that hasn’t been the case the past five seasons.
For Piotrowski, she said the break will be a good time to focus solely upon gymnastics and be able to tighten up those mistakes from the intrasquad meet.
“We’ll have a couple weeks to perfect the things that happened that we didn’t like,” Piotrowski said.
CMU will remain on campus until Dec. 22 in preparation for its Jan. 7 meet in Sacramento, Calif., against Sacramento State, Alaska-Anchorage and Wisconsin-Lacrosse.
“We’re on a good track,” Reighard said. “I think we’ll be where I want us to be by January.”
