The Bowling Green State University gymnastics team will seek redemption this weekend following its 196.125–192.700 road loss to Central Michigan last Sunday.
“I was very disappointed with our performance last weekend,” said head coach Kerri Turner. “We ended up having a team meeting and just talked about the fact that they just didn’t seem all together. We had to discuss it and now we are trying to put that behind us and rebound against Western Michigan.”
The Falcons had an encouraging start to their meet against Central Michigan with a 48.675 on bars; however, things quickly went south.
A few uncharacteristic mistakes cost the young Bowling Green team significant points on vault as its confidence and focus began to unravel.
“We worked really hard on bars last week and we had a pretty good start on bars,” Turner said. “But, I think in their minds they were expecting to hit every routine and since we had a few mistakes on bars they kind of psyched themselves out. Then they went vault and the first few routines had some struggles and you could just see the wind go out of the sails after that.”
BG finished with a 48.125 on vault, a 48.725 on floor and a 47.175 on beam. Turner called her team’s performance on beam “inexcusable.”
“I was a shocked by their performance on beam. We had a lot of falls and slips and we looked sloppy and that’s just really uncharacteristic,” Turner said. “I think they were just really upset that we were losing the meet and they didn’t focus on the right things, which is the skills and the routines.”
Despite the overall team struggles, sophomore Laura Feely turned in a strong day for the Falcons. Feely tied for second on vault with a 9.850, scored a season-high 9.700 on beam to finish fourth and registered a 9.775 on floor, tied for sixth. Individual performances do not carry the same meaning when the team does not perform well, however.
“I had a pretty good day but it doesn’t mean much to me at this point,” Feely said. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the team. We didn’t perform to our standards as a team so there’s no reason for me to smile and be happy for myself.”
Freshman Laura Mitchell, who earned a 9.850 on beam to place second on the apparatus, was also critical of her team’s
performance.
“We came in way too relaxed,” Mitchell said. “We had been doing so well the last three weeks and we came in a bit overconfident. I don’t think it was the opponent at all, we just kind of got in our own way.”
The Falcons know they will need to bring a significantly better effort if they plan to challenge a red-hot Western Michigan squad. The Broncos hold a record of 4-2 (2-2 MAC) and scored a program-high 196.175 in a win over Kent State last Friday.
“Western Michigan is an improving team and we will certainly need to be focused on doing our best routines,” Turner said. “They know they are very close to going to NCAA Regionals. Right now, 41st and they need to be in the top 36 so its not like their hunger died at all. They are ready to get back out there, improve that Regional Qualifying Score and prove that last weekend was a fluke.”
