The BG gymnastics team came up short to the Texas Pioneers 193.325 to 194.250 this past Saturday in Denton, Texas.
“The team was not at its best,” said head coach Kerrie Turner. “Our first four gymnasts did pretty well to start off bars but after the two falls, the team had a tough time fighting back…many of the mistakes were due to a lack of mental focus. It was unfortunate that beam did not go well after some improvement on vault and floor.”
The Falcons seemed to lose focus this meet and could not put a win together as they post their third worst score of the season since the opening meet when they scored a 191.950 against Ohio State and Oregon State.
Having put together a low score in this meet hurts the likelihood of the Falcons qualifying for NCAA regionals, but it does not take them out of it.
“This score will hurt our chances of staying in the top 36 this week,” said Turner. “However…we are by no means out of the race to qualify to NCAA regionals. This does add more pressure on our final three competitions leading up to regional selections.”
BG as a whole did not have their best meet but, many Falcons individually had a good meet. Several of them tied, or posted a 2014 or career best in one of the four competitions.
Gina Locigno, along with Lauren Feely, tied their career bests in vault with a 9.750 for Locigno and a 9.725 for Feely, while Jamilah Ali beat her 2014 best on vault with a 9.750 score as well.
Katrina Carpenter had her career best on floor with a 9.675 and Alexandria Porter had her career best on vault posting a 9.725 on the event. Finally, Megan Valentini tied her career best floor with a 9.750 score of the day.
Despite the great personal accolades, Turner was not happy and said that this is a team game, not a one person show.
“We are focused in team results…we underperformed and it is not acceptable at this point in the season. This…is that the team is disappointed and they will not allow themselves to perform like that at the Kent State meet, I expect they will rebound well,” Turner said.
The Falcons are now 7-6 overall with a 4-1 conference record and now look to the future as they prepare for the big meet against Kent State that will help decide the regular season Mid-American Conference Champion.
BG will have a short week to prepare as they look to upset the Kent State Golden Flashes this Thursday on the road.
