Despite a strong showing in Maryland last weekend, Cornell gymnastics couldn’t quite keep up with its host, taking home second place.
The Red traveled to College Park, Maryland for the Maryland Five Meet, taking on Maryland along with West Chester, Southern Connecticut and Bridgeport.
Despite setting a new team record for the floor, the Red couldn’t keep pace with the host Terrapins, finishing second overall with a team score of 193.225, losing by 3.075 points. West Chester finished a close third with a 193.175, while Southern Connecticut and Bridgeport rounded out the field with scores of 191.950 and 191.900, respectively.
“We had a strong showing at Maryland, but we also had a few mistakes,” said assistant coach Melanie Dilliplane. “While we placed second on vault, beam and floor as a team, bars was a tough event for us and we had to count a fall which cost us second place.”
Sophomore Maci Prescott had a new personal best on vault, finishing second with an average score of 9.625. Freshmen Amy Shen and Izzy Herczeg finished second on vault and fourth on the beam, respectively, while fellow freshman Maddie Smith and sophomore Sammie Henry tied for third place on the floor. Shen also finished fourth in the all-around.
It was a solid meet, but the team knows there is still progress to be made.
“In practice this week, we need to focus on precision and confidence in routines,” Dilliplane said. “We have definitely put in the numbers and now we just need to refine the final routines.”
The team’s next meet is its last competition before it heads to Penn for the ECAC Championships on March 24.
“We have a good opportunity this coming weekend at Towson to have our highest team score of the year,” Dilliplane said. “At Maryland [our score] included counting two falls and a few other mistakes that would have added more than a point to our team total. We are definitely a 194-plus team when we hit, so that is our goal – to hit our routines.”
The Red currently sits in sixth out of eight spots to qualify for April’s Collegiate National Championships. With Penn, Brown and Southeast Missouri right behind it, the Red will need solid results in its final two meets to secure its spot.
“If we hit our routines and put up some high scores, we could solidify our spot,” Dilliplane said. “There is no defense in gymnastics, so we have to put it all together and wait to see what the other teams do and, of course, how the judges score.”