NC State gymnastics hosted its first tri-meet this season for its pink meet Saturday afternoon. NC State placed second, following New Hampshire, 195.150-194.950. UNC-Chapel Hill finished in third place at 194.600.
Both the No. 35 Wildcats and the No. 41 Tar Heels were EAGL matches for the No. 27 Wolfpack. This is also the third time this season the Pack has competed against the Tar Heels.
“I was super proud of the way they finished that second half of the meet and put bars behind them and didn’t hang onto that,” said head coach Kim Landrus. “That says something about heart and drive and a great team.”
Starting the night on the vault, the Wolfpack managed to finish with an overall score of 48.825. The vault’s success laid with the freshmen, Chloe Negrete and Emily Shepard. Negrete tied her season high of 9.800. Shepard led the Pack with a solid 9.850 and tied for third with Wildcat’s gymnast freshman Kylie Gorgenyi.
The Wolfpack had a rough night on the bars. With a team score of 47.850, it was the lowest team score the Pack witnessed all night. Senior Drew Grantham led the Pack with a 9.775, placing third. Junior Lauren Kent and senior Melissa Brooker in particular had a rough night on the bars. Kent finished with 9.125 and Brooker with 9.150. Kent’s score is an outlier from her season high of 9.900.
“I just know we can do better,” Landrus said. “We practice, we prepare, we do intersquads all the time and that did not show what we were truly capable of. I know we will learn from that.”
The beam was a good event for the Wolfpack to collect itself. Grantham led on the beam with a 9.875 to place first. Negrete tied for second with a finishing score of 9.825. Kent and sophomore Kailin Foland both scored 9.750. The Pack collectively scored 48.875 on the beam.
“I think we rallied afterwards,” said senior Alexis Beucler. “We all just stayed focused and honed in on beams and that really helped us get out [of the slump].”
The floor was where the Wolfpack not only shined but also where it turned around the meet. Beucler had the most noteworthy performance. Not only did Beucler set a new career high, but she placed first with an impressive score of 9.950.
“I was very excited,” Beucler said. “I’m always training the details of even my leaps, jumps and all my landings.”
Following Beucler, Kent and Negrete also scored new career highs. Kent finished with a new score of 9.825 and Negrete scored 9.900. Grantham tied her career high of 9.900 to further help the Pack score a new season high on the floor, 49.400. Grantham and Negrete both tied for third.
Kent finished the night with an all-around score of 38.425. Grantham’s score of 39.225 earned her first place among five participants.
The Wolfpack returns to Reynolds Coliseum this Friday, Feb. 21 for another tri-meet against William and Mary and Centenary at 7 p.m.
