Just a week removed from beating Towson in Ithaca, the gymnastics team traveled to the Tigers’ den and was unable to repeat its performance on the road. Despite scoring its highest total of the season with a 190.850, Cornell finished second behind host Towson (192.150).
Cornell’s best performance of the year was good enough to distance itself significantly from third-place finisher and Ivy League rival, Penn. The Quakers put together a 186.400, also their highest score of the season.
“We feel great about our score from this weekend, and we know now we’re starting to show what we can do,” said sophomore Bethany Neczypor. “We wanted to win, but we were still really happy that we improved on our score and we didn’t worry about what the other teams were doing as much.”
Temple and Ursinus rounded out the group, scoring a 185.750 and 184.575, respectively.
“I think it was interesting how that worked out,” Neczypor said. “I think we do have good depth on our team –– Towson just did a better job this week overall, but we won each of the events and had some stellar performances.
“We do have good depth, and the scores were really close –– so close that we had good scores that just didn’t get on the podium.”
Junior Emily Santoro won the vault with a 9.725, .075 ahead of Towson’s three gymnasts who tied for second. Santoro also won the floor exercise with a 9.775, just beating out Towson’s Megan Wooden (9.750).
Neczypor won the bars with a 9.800 and freshman Sarah Hein took fifth in the event with a 9.675. Sophomore Melanie Standridge was Cornell’s final first-place finisher, winning the balance beam event with a 9.750 – a full point ahead of the second place finishers. Junior Danielle Scott took fourth with a 9.600.
Cornell was the most consistent team at the meet, totaling between 47.375 and 47.950 for all four events. While Cornell got their highest team score in the floor exercise, the Red’s 47.775 on the bars was tops at the meet. In each of the other three events, the Red had the second highest total behind Towson.
“We do a pretty good job of being consistent,” Neczypor said. “At the beginning of the year, sometimes we hit some rough spots where one event didn’t well. Overall, for the most part, consistency is a strength of this team.”
With the Ivy Classic coming up next week, it helps that the team has only gotten stronger.
Original Author: John Forman