BROOKVILLE, N.Y. -- Sydney Beers reshuffled the history books by landing a 9.900 on vault to help lead the Cornell gymnastics team to a fourth-place finish in Saturday's quad meet between Brown, LIU, and Penn from the Pratt Recreation Center. The Quakers took home the top spot on the team leaderboard with 194.700, 0.275 points ahead of the host Sharks, who earned the runner-up spot with 194.525. Brown closed out the podium with a combined 192.975.
Beers' performance as the anchor on vault broke her previous best of 9.875 set during last weekend's Empire State Collegiate Championships and now puts her in a four-way tie for the best mark in program history alongside McKenna Archer (2012), Kerri Lavallee (2018) and Donna Webster (2019). Her 9.900 earned her the top spot individually by 0.100 points over Penn's Kiersten Belkoff and two gymnasts from Brown in Sophia Dewar and Angela Xing.
As a group, the Big Red earned its best combine event score on vault, putting together a 48.500, with each qualifying score above 9.500. Cami Whitaker (9.750) and Michaela DeFrancisco (9.700) also had stellar performances to earn top 15 finishes, while freshmen Avery Byun (9.650) and Addy Rothstein (9.500) rounded out the qualifying scores on vault for Cornell.
Cornell's bars unit slid right behind, rebounding from a 46.500 performance last weekend with its second performance of 48.000 or better this year with a 48.300. The underclassmen led the way for the Big Red in the event, as Josie Moylan matched her career high (9.750) in the anchor position, and Natalia Tehrani (9.700) set a new career-best in her third appearance in the lineup this season. Beers (9.675), Melanie Stone (9.650), and Rothstein (9.550) followed closely behind their teammates in the final standings.
The Big Red would have one more team score above 48.000 by earning a 48.200 on floor. Beers excelled in the event, setting a new career-high with 9.925 to earn a tie with Brown's Julia Bedell for first overall. Moylan slotted right behind her captain with a 9.850 after a rough 8.800 during last weekend's championships in Ithaca. The three other qualifying scorers were also north of 9.000 from DeFrancisco (9.725), Whitaker (9.625), and Rothstein (9.075).
Cornell would struggle in one of its highlight events of the year on the balance beam, earning a season-low total of 47.400. Tehrani and Beers highlighted the unit, as the freshman earned her fourth-straight score of 9.550 or better (9.750), while the junior matched her score from last weekend (9.700). Senior Regina Walton closed out the top scores with a 9.650 after collecting a new program record with Alex Quiana last weekend in Ithaca.
Beers also finished second in the all-around (39.200) to LIU's Syd Morris, who took home the crown with a combined 39.225.
UP NEXT
Cornell will head back to the Palestra for the final time this season to compete in the 2024 Ivy Classic on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. Brown and Yale will join the Big Red and the Quakers in the meet, which will be streamed exclusively on ESPN Plus.
