Gymnastics finished last for the third straight week on Friday, taking third place at Kent State. Aside from a few noteworthy individual performances, the team had an unexceptional meet overall, scoring 191.400. Kent State won its own competition by a small margin, scoring 195.550, and Rutgers earned second place with 195.175.
One of the bright spots in the loss was freshman gymnast Sydney Beers’ all-around performance, which was good enough for the first place title. Beers scored a 38.600, beating second place Rachel DeCavitch of Kent State by more than half a point.
“It was so exciting to win the all-around title,” Beers said. “I was genuinely surprised when my name was called.”
Her 38.6 score was a career record and tied the fifth best all-around score in Cornell history. The record marks the second historic score by Beers this season — seven days earlier, Beers set the record for Cornell’s sixth best all-around score (38.450) in the meet against West Chester on Jan. 23.
Despite remarkable individual performances, the Red has yet to score high enough to defeat any opponents this season. Cornell’s score against West Chester (191.000) was the closest it came to victory, scoring within .600 of the Golden Rams.
The team may still be finding its rhythm, however, having only competed in three meets since COVID ended its season in March 2020. Beers feels there is plenty to build on.
“The team needs to go into the competitions with the confidence that they show in the gym,” Beers said. “We have the skill level to win, we just need to show the other teams what we are capable of.”
Even as the team continues to enhance its overall skills, Beers feels she can still improve her individual performances.
“I do believe that I will be able to build on this achievement,” she said. “We still have a long season ahead of us, and there will be so much room to grow and improve [to] try to save every tenth possible. That comes with continuous hard work in the gym.”
The Red continues to search for the elusive first win of the season. The team will head to the Palestra along with the wrestling team for a Rumble and Tumble doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Sunday.