The Pitt gymnastics team faced a lot of tough competition at its season finale last weekend…. The Pitt gymnastics team faced a lot of tough competition at its season finale last weekend.

Qualifying for the third year in a row, the Panthers traveled to Ann Arbor, Mich., to compete in the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships.

Placing fifth with a score of 192.55, Pitt followed the No. 1 team in the nation, Florida, No. 12 Michigan, No. 13 Arkansas and New Hampshire. Rutgers also competed, falling behind the Panthers with a score of 190.85.

Head coach Debbie Yohman had mixed feelings about the performance at first.

“When we got the final results, I kind of had to walk away from everybody for a little because everyone was getting tears in their eyes,” she said. “But after we thought about it, we were really very pleased with how we finished up.

“In the end we went out on the floor and did a great job. I could say a lot about everybody on the team,” Yohman said.

Beginning with its most challenging event, the balance beam, Pitt (12-14) scored a 47.325, counting three falls. Freshman Jessica Byich took her second highest balance beam score with a 9.7, junior Samantha DeBone recorded a 9.75 and senior Andrea Arlotta started off a successful evening with a season-high 9.8. Sophomores Andrea Konesky and Anya Chayka and freshman Dani Bryan all took falls and finished with scores of 9.0, 8.95 and 9.075, respectively.

The Panthers took a few more hits in the vault competition, landing most of their vaults with big leaps and hops.

“It was not one of our strongest vault performances – we had some big landing deductions,” Yohman remarked. “I think we just overdid it a little, and we brought down our scores a little on vault.

“It was just the landings, you lose a half a tenth [of a point] or a tenth on the landing and that’s a half a point off the team score,” she said.

The vault score ended up coming out to a 48.475. Arlotta led the team, tying her season-high of 9.825. Next was Bryan with a 9.775. Freshman Shannon McConnell notched a 9.75, and freshman Kristen Dahlberg scored a 9.575. Chayka recorded a 9.55, and Byich counted a fall, scoring a 9.225.

Yohman was happy with the floor score, especially since her team beat out the highly ranked University of Arkansas.

Scoring a 48.625, a tenth higher than the conference meet, the individual Panthers scored high on the floor. Chayka recorded a season-high 9.75, Arlotta notched a 9.775 and McConnell scored a 9.7. Bryan came through with a 9.8 – she has scored a 9.8 or better for the past four meets – and senior Jessica Garber took a fall in her last tumbling pass for a 9.175.

Yohman felt the scores didn’t reflect how well her team did on the uneven bars. She was very proud of those six routines.

Pitt recorded a 48.125 on the bars. Bryan, Arlotta and sophomore Alix Croop each led the team with a score of 9.65. Byich scored a 9.5, and junior Kaitlin Harrison followed with a 9.525.

Bryan and Arlotta both competed in the all-around competition. Arlotta placed fourth with a 39.05 and Bryan notched a 38.3.

Arlotta was the only Panther to qualify for the nationals. Usually gymnasts are not allowed to travel to nationals unless their team places first or second in the competition, but Arlotta won the uneven bars event, which qualifies her. She also won this event in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League competition and also captured the Big East conference title on this event this season.

She is the first Panther to qualify for nationals as an all-around performer, and she won the Northeast Region Gymnast of the Year award at NCAAs. She leads the Panthers with the record for most career points at 1,570.38.

It’s Arlotta’s first time going to nationals as an all-arounder, and she will travel to Utah to compete in the NCAA Championships from April 26-28.

Also earning accolades were Pitt assistant coaches Mike Rowe and Jessica Bartgis, who have helped take the Panthers to three regional championships in a row.

Rowe is a second-year assistant coach and primarily works with competitors on the uneven bars. His efforts have paid off – Pitt scored a season-high 48.775 on the event last year and has surpassed that three times this season.

In her first year as Pitt assistant coach, Bartgis coached vault. Pitt’s high vault score last year was also 48.775, and this year the Panthers have notched a high of 48.825 twice.