Gymnastics: Pitt wins home quad meet

The Pitt gymnastics team earned its highest team score in two years when it picked up its first… The Pitt gymnastics team earned its highest team score in two years when it picked up its first victory of the 2012 season Saturday.

The Panthers hosted their first quad meet of the year at the Fitzgerald Field House and swept the competition with a 194.550 overall team score, their best since a 194.650 performance against Penn State in 2010.

Pitt head coach Debbie Yohman said that commitment to a larger team goal drives her squad to perform well.

“Our season goals are to win the East Atlantic Gymnastics League and qualify for the NCAA Tournament as a team,” Yohman said. “Everyone is focused on answering the questions, ‘What do I do to make the team better?’ and ‘What I just did, did it help the team?’”

Sophomore Katie O’Rourke agreed with her coach, saying that an EAGL team championship would be a great accomplishment.

“Everyone is putting in a tremendous amount of effort to make becoming EAGL champions come true,” O’Rourke said. “It’s rewarding to be part of a team that shares the same goal.”

Pitt started the season with three consecutive losses. The Panthers fell 193.850-189.65 to Maryland in their season opener on Jan. 13 and then lost a close meet with New Hampshire on the road 194.150-193.725.

The Panthers also kept close in a meet against No. 11 Ohio State, eventually losing 195.625-193.500.

The Panthers defeated George Washington, Rutgers and William & Mary on Saturday night. George Washington and Rutgers compete with Pitt in the EAGL, and the two wins offset the Panthers’ previous season losses to fellow conference members Maryland and New Hampshire.

In addition to posting an impressive overall score, the Panthers also recorded their highest marks of the season on the bars and the floor events with scores of 48.300 and 49.075, respectively.

Teamwork was particularly evident in the floor event as four Panthers contributed to the season-high score.

O’Rourke placed first out of 24 with a career-best 9.875 score, while senior Alicia Talucci tied her career-best score of 9.850 in a second-place finish. Freshmen Haley Bodenheimer and Haley Sedgewick tied for third, completing the Panthers’ sweep.

So far this season, the rookie Panthers have been major contributors to team scoring. Sedgewick placed fifth out of 24 on the uneven bars in the quad meet and finished the night in fifth place in the all-around competition with a personal-best score of 38.625.

Bodenheimer was named EAGL Rookie of the Week for the week preceding the quad meet based on her performance against No. 11 Ohio State on Jan. 27. In that meet, Bodenheimer won the all-around competition, and she’s currently the leading EAGL scorer in the floor event.

Bodenheimer said that the honor shows she’s working toward her ultimate goal.

“As an incoming freshman, I wanted to contribute to Pitt gymnastics and make the team better,” Bodenheimer said. “By being named Rookie of the Week, others must feel that I am achieving this goal.”

Her success continued on Saturday as she posted a career-best all-around score of 39.025, placing her in the second spot out of nine, just behind Rutgers’ Alexis Gunzelman and her 39.075 tally.

In the balance beam competition, the Panthers once again boasted the top three finishers out of 24, this time with scoring across three different academic classes.

Bodenheimer won the event with a career-high score of 9.825. Sophomore O’Rourke and senior Amy Varela followed, tying for second with 9.800 scores.

While the freshmen are producing high scores, Talucci said that senior leadership and experience will also remain a factor as the team goes forward.

“All of our seniors have had unique experiences,” Talucci said. “I’ve been to regionals twice, and Amy and Kelsey [Ainsworth] both sat out from surgeries and came back to be very successful. We have come back from adversity, and that is a great example for our underclassmen as they grow into great competitors.”

With the quad meet victory, the Panthers responded to several challenges set forth by their coach.

“Three goals for us in this meet were to get rid of falls on the bars, get improvements from each gymnast and even our record in the EAGL,” Yohman said. “Check, check and check.”

The Panthers will look to build on their first victory when they travel to Michigan State next Saturday.

The Spartans, who compete in the Big Ten conference, have won their last two meets. Pitt will return to the Fitzgerald Field House on Feb. 18 for another nonconference meet against Bowling Green.