In what was perhaps one of the toughest meets it has faced all season, the Red struggled to power through a talented field, placing fourth of five teams.
Last weekend, Cornell travelled to Towson to compete in a meet that also included North Carolina State, William and Mary, and West Virginia. The Red, which earned a score of 193.500, placed worse than all but William and Mary.
Despite the middling finish, Cornell — which earned its third highest score of the season — considered the results a relative success, given the quality of the field.
“Towson, WVU, and NC State were all ranked far above us making the competition tough,” said freshman Madison Smith. “But we were still able to pull through and pass up William & Mary, which was a success for us because we’re competing against them again at ECACs next weekend.”
The squad comfortably dispatched William and Mary in each of the meet’s four events, a positive signal as the gymnasts prep for post-season competition. Cornell posted scores of 48.000, 48.025, 48.550, and 48.95 in vault, bars, beam, and floor, respectively.
The Red’s younger gymnasts played a decisive role in its sweep. Freshman Izzy Herczeg posted the team’s highest vault score of 9.75, while freshman Amy Shen accomplished the same in bars and beam with scores of 9.70 and 9.85. Supporting the duo, freshman Madison Smith and sophomore Samantha Henry eached earned an impressive 9.85 on the floor.
Cornell’s performance at Towson marked a noticeable improvement over the team’s previous showings. Last weekend, when the gymnasts competed at Maryland, the Red posted a score of 193.225. The weekend before, the squad earned 192.950 points.
“Recently we’ve been trying to focus on confidence and I think that’s really been paying off,” Smith said. “If we keep competing as well as we can I think we will continue the upward trend.”
Action starts again for the gymnasts next weekend, when they will travel to Philadelphia to compete in the ECAC Championships, followed by the NCAA Regionals.