Gymnastics places sixth despite setting school records

Despite a number of record setting performances, the Pitt women’s gymnastics team… Despite a number of record setting performances, the Pitt women’s gymnastics team finished off its season by placing sixth out of six teams in the NCAA Northeast Regionals held at the University of Michigan last Saturday night.

“We finished sixth in our region, but this is probably the first time in my years of coaching at Pitt that we scored the same scores we got throughout the year,” head coach Debbie Yohman said. “That is a tremendous accomplishment.”

Pitt scored 194.5 points, which is the eighth highest in school history. The score was also its fifth top 10 score this season. The Panthers broke four single season event total records and four gymnasts finished in the top 10 in an event.

“We were much more consistent throughout the year than some of the teams that we lost to in the beginning of the year,” Yohman said. “We were able to do the job and they weren’t. We finished about 27th in the country and it is out of 30 teams.”

Senior Nathalie Sulpher was the Panthers’ top performer as she scored 9.825 on the vault, which tied the fourth highest score all-time.

Heather Launse scored 9.75 on her vault, which allowed her to set a new school record with 126.975 points on the vault this season.

Junior Diandra O’Connor was Pitt’s top finisher on the uneven bars as she scored 9.75 points. She broke Brenda Stevens’ 1996 record of 125.25 points by finishing with 126.975 points.

Alyse Zeffiro set a single season record on the beam as she scored 9.875 points, which tied her for fifth place. Zeffiro finished with 127.6 points on the season.

Freshman Roslyn Singleton also made the top 10 on the beam as she finished tied for ninth place with a score of 9.85. Pitt’s beam total of 48.85 was the fourth highest in the competition.

Zeffiro had another top 10 finish on the floor exercise. She finished with a 9.9, which tied her for eighth place in the NCAA Regionals. Fellow teammate Erica Goldberg had been leading Zeffiro by 0.025 heading into the meet, but Zeffiro was able to set the single season record with 117.25 points.

“Alyse had a floor routine that was just shy of qualifying for the nationals,” Yohman said. “That was her strong event.”

Sulpher and Launse finished their careers at Pitt in the top 10 in scoring. Launse finished with 1,126.775 points, which is the 10th most in school history and 2.225 away from ninth place. Sulpher finished with 1,218.6 points, which is the seventh most in school history.

“Heather was consistent all year and she looked like she was having a lot of fun,” Yohman said.