Gymnastics improves but falls to Nittany Lions

The Pitt gymnastics team visited Penn State on Saturday in the first meet on the road of its… The Pitt gymnastics team visited Penn State on Saturday in the first meet on the road of its season. The Panthers were looking to avenge their most recent defeat, a close loss to New Hampshire, with a win against a team that was flourishing with the momentum of having defeated Denver and Iowa, two nationally ranked teams.

But Penn State proved to be too much for the Panthers, winning by a score of 195.425-193.850 in front of a crowd of 2,315 at Rec Hall.

It was the Panthers’ second straight defeat and Pitt struggled to gain any top three finishes in the meet.

Pitt’s Alyse Zeffiro earned a score of 9.8 on the vault, which was good enough for one of her two third place finishes. The Panthers would only break into the top three spots one other time in the night.

Zeffiro tied her career-high score on the floor exercises with 9.85 points and again finished in third place. Penn State held strong, capturing first and second on the vault and floor.

Zeffiro also led Pitt in scoring on the balance beam with 9.775 but she only placed fourth. The Panthers’ Heather Launse tied Zeffiro on the floor exercises and split third place with her.

On the uneven bars, Penn State took first through fifth place. Pitt’s Diandra O’Connor stopped the Nittany Lions from sweeping the event with a score of 9.775.

In all-around competition, O’Connor received a score of 38.650 and senior co-captain Nathalie Sulpher earned 38.025 points. However, both of them were behind three Penn State gymnasts. Katie Rowland took first in the all-around for the Nittany Lions with a score of 39.1.

Penn State was fueled by performances from Rowland, who led her team in two other individual events, the vault and the floor, as well as Nikki Bongiovanni and Katie McAvoy.

Bongiovanni took first on the balance beam with a score of 9.925 while McAvoy won the bars event with a score of 9.85.

The Nittany Lions did not have a single gymnast score lower than 9.7 on the vault and the uneven bars as opposed to the Panthers, who only had six of their 12 athletes score 9.7 or better in the two events.

For the Panthers, the meet that featured many disparaging losses had one uplifting addition. Senior Lisa Yarosh returned to actual competition after having only been used as an exhibition-event gymnast in the first three meets because of an injury.

Yarosh scored 9.55 on the balance beam and 9.35 on the uneven bars.

The loss to Penn State continued a depressing trend for Pitt gymnastics: improved scoring with no victories to show for it. For the third consecutive week, the Panthers improved their season average in scoring, but their record continues to go down.

Pitt is now 1-5 on the season. The team has yet to secure a win in its conference, the East Atlantic Gymnastics League, in which it is still 0-2.

On Saturday, the Panthers will continue their road competition as they travel to Piscataway, N.J., to take on the hosting Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Cornell will also be there competing against Pitt. Rutgers will be the first EAGL competitor that Pitt has seen since losing to New Hampshire.