Complete Results
DENTON, Texas - The Cornell gymnastics team placed third at the team finals of the 2010 USAG Collegiate Gymnastics championships on Friday evening at Texas Woman's University. The Big Red's 192.325 score was behind only meet winner Bridgeport (193.975) and the host school (193.600), and ahead of fourth-place Rutgers (190.700).
Below is assistant coach Melanie Dilliplane's recap:
In the first rotation, after a random draw, Texas was on vault, Bridgeport on bars, Rutgers on beam and Cornell on floor.
Up first was freshman Sarah Hein who started us off on the right foot. She nailed her opening 2 1/2 twist and then followed up with a nice whip - 2/1 twist and a nice switch ring leap - tour jete ring jump and then she finished up with a solid front 1 1/2 twist (rudi) to score a 9.600. Junior Kerri Lavallee stepped into the lineup second and also opened with a straddle jump 1/1 - pike jump 1/1 combo and then a 2 1/2 twist. Her second pass she made her whip 1/2 - front layout - front layout 1/1 and then she finished up with a front layout 1/1 - front tuck for a 9.500. Then senior Emily Lenk stepped up and nailed her two opening passes - the first was her double pike and her second was a double tuck. Then she made her dance bonus of straddle jump 1/1 - wolf jump 1 1/2 and then ended with a stuck front layout 1/1 - front tuck for a 9.700. It only got better.... Junior Maddie Pearsall nailed her first pass of double pike and then followed that up with a super whip 1/2 - front layout 1/1 - front tuck (which the judges missed and so I had to put in an inquiry and they had to raise her score) and then finished off with a whip - 2/1 twist to score a 9.750. 5th up was senior Brittany Howse who also opened with a double tuck and then followed with a back 1 1/2 twist - front layout and then did a beautiful tour jete 1/2 - popa dance combo and then ended with a front layout 1/1 - front layout for a 9.725. And our high score came last from junior Emily Santoro who redeemed herself this night by making her opening pass of front 2/1 twist - front tuck followed by her whip 1/2 - front layout. Just before her last pass she made her switch ring leap - wolf 1/1 before she finished off her routine with a beautiful front layout 1/1 - front layout 1/1 for a 9.775 and a team score of 48.075.
After the first round of events the team scores were:
Texas - 48.775
Bridgeport - 48.300
Rutgers - 48.175
Cornell - 48.075
Next up for the Big Red was vault. Junior Gabriella Sanguineti started us off but missed her handspring tuck front for an 8.975. But then we were on a roll. Sarah Hein stepped up and hit her vault of the year - yerchenko layout 1/1 for a 9.675. Then freshman McKenna Archer hit her vault of the year - a super high and tight handspring 2/1 twist for a 9.750 - a personal best. Next up was Maddie Pearsall who also hit her vault - a yerchenko tuck 1/2 for a 9.650 while Kerri Lavallee hit her yerchenko layout for a 9.500. Our high score of the night came from Emily Santoro who also nailed her handspring 2/1 twist for a 9.725 making our team score 48.300. And then after the second round of events, the team scores were:
Texas - 97.375
Bridgeport - 96.875
Cornell - 96.850
Rutgers - 96.250
In the third rotation, we were on bars. First up for us was freshman Ashley Maher. She opened up with her piked yaeger but missed and then finished up her routine with an overshoot and a double layout dismount for an 8.500. Next up was freshman Sarah Hein who redeemed herself after a miss last night and made her geinger and then finished off her routine with a beautiful freehip - giant 1/1 - overshoot handstand and a full in dismount for a 9.450. Sophomore Bethany Neczypor also made up for last night by hitting her entire routine - hop handstand - straddle back handstand - toe shoot to the high bar and then ended with a giant 1/1 - double tuck which she stuck to earn a 9.625. Our high score of the day on bars came in our 4th person up, junior Maddie Pearsall who nailed every handstand from her giant 1/1 - giant 1/2 - overshoot handstand to her giant 1/1 - double tuck for a 9.800! Senior Molly Parker also hit a nice set making her uprise healy - straddle back handstand and then her higgins - yaeger and then finished off her routine with a super high toe front dismount for a 9.550. And up last was junior Gaby Sanguineti who missed her geinger but stuck her giant 1/1 - double tuck for a 9.075 and a team score of 47.500.
Team scores at this point were:
Bridgeport - 145.725
Texas - 144.875
Cornell - 144.350
Rutgers - 144.275
Going into the last rotation we were on beam, Bridgeport was on vault, Rutgers was on bars and Texas on floor.
First up for us was junior Danielle Scott who was solid as a rock - again! She opened her routine with a switch leap - straddle jump 1/4 followed by her aerial round off - beat jump. Then she nailed her side aerial - side aerial series and then stuck her gainer pike dismount for a 9.650. It was a great way to start beam. Next up was junior Kim O'Donnell who also redeemed herself by nailing her flight series - back handspring - layout. She then stuck her switch leap - wolf jump 1/1 combo and her wolf jump - tuck jump 1/1 and then ended the routine with a nice front tuck 1/1 dismount for a 9.575. Third up in the lineup was Bethany Neczypor who had an amazing triple series of 2 back handsprings into a layout. Her leap combo was switch leap - tuck jump 1/1 - beat jump. She threw in a back tuck and front handspring for good measure and then stuck her front layout 1/1 dismount for a 9.600. Senior Sarah Zelek started her routine off with a spectacular switch leap - tour jete combo and then stuck a huge back handspring - layout combo and a beat jump - double stag ring jump and then made her round off - 1 1/2 dismount for a 9.550. Brittany Howse was up 5th and she too had a great routine. Her opener was a super mixed combo of switch leap - gainer layout followed by her flight series, back handspring - layout. She threw a nice switch side leap and a beat jump - straddle jump 3/4 and then ended with a front 1/1 dismount for a 9.475. Our high score of the day again came from sophomore Melanie Standridge. If you haven't seen her compete beam, you need to. She opens up with her signature mount which I can't even begin to explain. Then she threw her front aerial - back layout flight series and went on to her switch leap - 1 arm back handspring mixed combo. She added a back pike and a beat jump - split jump 3/4 combo all before she stuck her 1 arm back handspring - 1 1/2 dismount. It was a sight to see and the judges thought so too because they awarded her a 9.800.... the second highest score of the night. Our beam score was stellar - 48.175 but would it be enough?
At the end of the night, the scores were announced....
4th - Rutgers - 190.700
3rd - Cornell - 192.525
2nd - Texas - 193.600
1st - Bridgeport - 193.975
While we were disappointed that we didn't win, we were super happy for Bridgeport - they had a spectacular meet. It was nice to see Cornell back up on the podium, a non-scholarship team amongst 3 scholarship teams. We counted falls and some mistakes, but overall the team really stepped up to the task and did a fantastic job! We are very proud of them, their accomplishments and their attitude. I had many people from the audience come up and tell me how great we looked and how impressed they were with our team's attitude, team spirit and general feel. We know how special our team is and it is nice to see that it shows while we are on the "playing field".
Cornell will have five individuals competing in Saturday's All-America Showcase.
