In its second to last home meet of the season, NC State gymnastics defeated New Hampshire 196.150-195.650. Seniors Chloe Negrete and Emily Shepard put forth the best scores of the night to lead an all-around solid outing by the Pack.
NC State (5-6) fought hard to maintain a lead over New Hampshire (9-6) through all four rotations, finally pulling away during the floor routine by posting a 49.400 team score — the highest overall rotational score on the night. The Pack wavered slightly on beam and vault, but New Hampshire was unable to take advantage of those opportunities.
This meet also held some extra importance due to it being NC State’s first Mental Health Awareness Meet. Each gymnast dawned a special t-shirt to spread the message of the importance of mental health.
“Even if you help just one person, I feel like you can make a difference,” Shepard said. “Being a student athlete, putting your mental health first to me looks like being a person before being a student or an athlete.”
The red-and-white started its night on vault, led by Shepard’s 9.850 and Negrete’s 9.825 — the top two scores for the event. The red-and-white failed to reach the 49.000 mark here, but the 48.900 was still better than the 48.775 from New Hampshire.
The Wolfpack continued onto the uneven bars, an event that went disastrously for NC State gymnastics in last week’s quad-meet. The Pack recovered in this week’s outing, putting up a 49.200 thanks to a near-perfect 9.900 score from Shepard to continue to outpace the Wildcats through two rotations.
“Sometimes things don’t go to plan,” Negrete said. “But, that allows us to go back in the gym and fix those [things] and learn to adapt to them in the future so it doesn’t happen again.”
With a mere 0.525 gap between both squads halfway through the meet, first place was still very much up for grabs. New Hampshire executed well on its floor routine while NC State had its worst rotational score of the night on beam. The Wolfpack totaled 48.650 on its third rotation while New Hampshire scored 49.100, narrowing the red-and-white’s lead to 0.075 with just the floor routine left to complete.
The red-and-white crushed the floor exercise, with each individual gymnast putting forth an almost-flawless routine. The lowest individual score for NC State was 9.800 and the highest was 9.925 from Shepard to contribute to a season-high 49.400.
“Our team chemistry has never been this good,” Shepard said. “Everyone’s willing to put in the work and grow with each other.”
The strong finish resulted in the 196.150-195.650 victory for NC State, a statement win after struggling a week ago. Although this wasn’t the biggest matchup on the calendar for the red-and-white, it’s definitely a much-needed boost to morale as the Pack turns its attention to another quad-meet on the road.
The Pack will meet Temple, George Washington and Penn on Sunday, Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. in Philadelphia, and will stay on the road for an additional tri-meet before returning to Raleigh for its final home meet on Saturday, March. 4.
