Third place for hobbling Panthers

Suffering from past and more recent injuries, Pitt gymnastics fell once again Saturday night… Suffering from past and more recent injuries, Pitt gymnastics fell once again Saturday night in its closest meet of the season.

The Panthers (0-4) faced New Hampshire (4-1) and Brigham Young (0-0) in the EAGL conference opener and scored a 190.075, while the Wildcats notched a192.4 and Brigham Young ended the meet with a 191.2.

“It was close,” Pitt coach Debbie Yohman said. “All three teams were the victims of some of the tightest scoring I’ve seen in maybe the past 10 years.”

Sophomore Dani Bryan, suffering from a foot injury, hasn’t been completely healthy enough, and Yohman said two competitors, Jess Byich and Sarah Thompson, suffered minor injuries just before Saturday’s meet.

“We basically hit on all events,” Yohman said, “but we had to do some last-minute scrambling to change our lineup because we had two kids that got pulled out with injuries in warmups.”

Byich had a fall on the vault during warmups but competed on the bars, earning a 9.2 and hurting her knee on the dismount. Thompson hurt her back in warmups.

Bryan, despite the injury, has managed to consistently place on the vault, tying for third with a 9.725.

“We’re still being very conservative with [Bryan],” Yohman said.

“She wanted to do a floor routine on Saturday when Jessi went down, and we wouldn’t let her. It’s a long season, and we’d rather have her at the end than right now.”

Freshman Molly Moyer has carried her weight consistently this season, claiming a first-place tie on the floor with a 9.625, as well as leading the team on beam with a 9.6 for a sixth-place finish.

Moyer was named EAGL Rookie of the Week in her first week of competition.

Pitt hosts Rutgers at 7 p.m. on Feb. 1 at the Fitzgerald Field House