After their best meet of the season at the Ivy Classic, the Red gymnasts will travel to Piscataway, N.J. this weekend to compete in a quad meet against Ursinus, Eastern Michigan, and host Rutgers.
Cornell finished second in the Ivy Classic at Yale last weekend, while recording its second-highest team score this season of 189.075.
Senior Meghan Miller, freshman Megan Gilbert, and sophomore Kari Kucera contributed solid performances on balance beam.
Freshman Colleen Davis was the Red’s high-scorer on the floor exercise with a 9.575, and though the season has seen some inconsistency on bars, scores from Miller, senior Larissa Calka, juniosr Cathy Schnell and Shellen Goltz totalled 48.300.
Goltz also received the ECAC Coaches Choice Award for her bar routine featuring a pac-salto to double back dismount off the low bar, an original combination, which was the only way for her to compete bars after battling both back and abdominal injuries.
The squad is enthusiastic about its upcoming meet and confident that it will continue to improve its performances.
“We’ve been on an up-streak, and we definitely want to continue that,” said senior Andrea Mavro.
Cornell should be able to compete with Ursinus and Eastern Michigan, while holding its own against Rutgers.
“Our team goal is to hit that 190.000,” said head coach Paul Beckwith.
A change in the scoring guidelines this year has made it more difficult to amass a higher team score because the same elements executed as in previous seasons now have a lower start value.
However, the rule change applies to all teams so scores are still proportional.
“I think its more fair the way they do it now. Last year everyone was getting like 9.9’s and it was hard to tell who really deserved it,” Davis said.
Despite the new scoring, the girls continue to set new team records.
According to Beckwith, practices have been going well and if the Red can hit its routines consistently in the meet, it will at least come close to hitting its mark of 190.000.
“There really is no defense, so we can’t plan what the other team is going to do. We can only improve on our side,” Beckwith said.
Beckwith went on to say, that with solid performances on Cornell’s stronger events — vault and uneven bars — the team should deliver high scores this weekend.
The Red also hopes to improve on balance beam in an attempt to strenthen its overall team score.
“My hope is we will continue exactly where we left off last week in terms of our performances and team spirit,” Beckwith said.
Archived article by Jessica Franko
Sun Contributor