Gymnastics: Panthers host EAGL Championships, finish fifth

This past Saturday marked the first time in eight years that the University of Pittsburgh hosted… This past Saturday marked the first time in eight years that the University of Pittsburgh hosted the Eastern Atlantic Gymnastics League championship meet, and the change of venue marked an improvement in performance for the Panthers.

The location of the championship meet has cycled through Pitt and the other seven schools in the EAGL conference over the years. Pitt’s gymnastics team placed fifth this year, an improvement from last year’s seventh-place finish.

This meet caps the season for the Pitt women, giving the team a 9-11 (6-6 EAGL) record. Their record marks another improvement from Pitt’s 4-17 (1-7 EAGL) showing last year.

“We had one of our best meets of the year,” head coach Debra Yohman said. “Our expectations were that we could compete for the championship title. That meet was very close. There wasn’t a team in that whole meet, out of eight teams, that counted a fall. That’s pretty impressive. It was very competitive.”

As a team, Pitt finished third in the uneven bars and second on the balance beam with 48.755 and 48.725, respectively. That placed the team just behind the West Virginia Mountaineers’ 49.175 and North Carolina State Wolfpack’s 49.100 (uneven bars) and the West Virginia Mountaineers’ 48.850 (balance beam).

“We were a little disappointed with our scores on the floor exercise,” said Yohman. “I think the judges kind of boxed themselves in and got a little tighter for the last two teams. I personally did not feel like we got the scores we deserved on floor compared to the other teams, but that’s not anything we can do anything about.”

Pitt’s total score of 195.375 was a mere .125 points from the University of North Carolina’s 195.550, which earned them a fourth-place finish. Overall, the Panthers were 1.1 points from tying for first at the championship.

“Going into the meet, we had high expectations to do well,” Pitt senior Alicia Talucci said. “I did everything I really could to contribute to the team. We didn’t count a fall. We did everything we could, but unfortunately it was left up to judging. As a team we did everything that the coaches asked of us. It just didn’t pan out for us in the end.”

Looking forward, the Panthers now prepare for the NCAA regional meet held in Raleigh, N.C.

Selection for the meet is tricky. Based on team’s overall scoring average, the top 36 teams are divided into six regions. After the regions are established, the top five all-around competitors from each region are selected from teams that were not invited to attend the regional meet. Lastly, the top-ranked competitors in each individual event are selected to compete.

Pitt’s team, averaging 193.445 points per meet, did not meet the criteria to attend the NCAA regional met in Raleigh. That honor goes to Florida, Ohio State, Penn State, North Carolina State, Kent State and the University of North Carolina. Instead, Talucci and sophomore Katie O’Rourke will attend as individual specialists. Talucci will compete in the vault and O’Rourke will compete in the floor exercise only. Haley Bodenheimer, named as the EAGL’s Rookie of the Year, will attend as one of the five all-around competitors.

“Preparation-wise, we’ll be doing the same thing we’ve been doing, except that we get two weeks to prepare instead of just one,” O’Rourke said. “I think it’ll be fun. Florida, who’s ranked No. 1 in the country, will be there, so that’ll be really fun to watch them.”

Pitt’s NCAA regional meet will be hosted by North Carolina State, an EAGL foe. Action starts Saturday, April 7 at 4 p.m. at the Reynolds Coliseum.