The youthful Bowling Green gymnastics team found learning to be tough on their trip to Lexington this past weekend.
The Falcons fell to Kentucky by a score of 194.850-190.150 in their first meet of the season.
The team had their fair share of freshman participate and they got their feet wet at the collegiate level for the first time in a bittersweet weekend.
The Falcons came out of the weekend a stronger team, but didn’t get the strong performance they were looking for. Much of the team was participating in their first team event of their young careers.
“We’re pretty young,” BG head coach Dan Connelly said. “A lot of freshmen had a rough time. It was the first time competing for a team instead of competing for themselves.”
The team had trouble staying consistent during the weekend and it showed.
The Falcons usually like to have at least 90 percent of their gymnasts have a good showing in their performances, a goal they fell short of in Lexington.
“We have 24 slots, 24 individual perfomances,” Connelly said. “We judge whether a performance is a hit or a miss and out of 24 we had only 16 hits.”
Even with the tough outing, the team can still come away with a sense of accomplishment as they are in the learning process. The team will be doing what many teams do at this time of year and just look for continual improvement.
“I just think of all the young kids without experience that not have a lot to draw from for next week,” Connelly said.
Even in the loss, the team had some solid performances.
Breanne Metzger finished second in the all-around with a 38.075 and was the top BG finisher.
Jessica Guyer took a third place finish in the floor exercise with a score of 9.775.
And senior Kari Elste placed third in the uneven bars. It was Elste’s only event of the day as she was battling a back injury.
“She’s actually been nursing herniated disc in her back,” Connelly said. “She scored a 9.8 on the uneven bars and in my way of looking at things, it was the best performance of the meet.”
The gutty performance was just what the younger Falcons needed.
“She’s a senior so she’s a great example for the younger kids,” Connelly said.
The Falcons will welcome Ball State to town in a meet that will open Mid-American Conference competition for them. The meet will start at 2 p.m. this Sunday inside the Eppler Complex.
