Panthers finish fifth at EAGL Championships

Despite benefiting from some standout individual performances, the Pitt gymnastics team couldn’t defend its crown as conference title-winners at Saturday’s East Atlantic Gymnastics League Championship.

Sophomore Brittany West and senior Tracey Pearson had standout performances during Saturday’s meet at the Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, North Carolina, but the Panthers finished fifth out of six with a team score of 194.100. George Washington took home the title this year with a team score of 196.275.

West tied for first place on the beam with a career-best score of 9.900. The win marked the third straight year in which a Panther has come home with the beam conference title, after Lindsay Offutt won it in both 2015 and 2016.

Sophomores Lucy Brett and Krista Collins and senior Kelly Burak followed West on the beam. Together, they combined to score a team total of 48.575, the second highest mark of the season. Brett finished second on the team, and eighth overall, with a score of 9.850.

Pearson led the way for the Panthers on the vault, taking home second place with a score of 9.850. Sophomore Meagan Oscar posted a 9.800 in the event, good for fifth place, while West and first-year Deven Herbine finished in seventh and 13th places with scores of 9.775 and 9.700, respectively.

The Panthers’ weakest event of the day was the bars, the team managing a score of only 48.100. Brett was a bright spot for the team as she tied for fourth in the event with a team-high score of 9.800.

In the floor exercise, first-year Alecia Petrikis, sophomore Charli Spivey, junior Dani Hall and Pearson combined to score 48.500 points for the team. Spivey and Pearson each earned a score of 9.800 with their routines to come in 13th on the day.

Next up for the team are the Regional Qualifiers on April 1, in a city to be determined. Individual Panthers will look to qualify for the National Championship in St. Louis, held April 14 and 15.