The NC State gymnastics team finished third out of the four universities competing in the EAGL quad meet held at Reynolds Coliseum Saturday night.
The absence of junior All-American Brittni Watkins, who did not participate due to injury, was evident, as the team struggled to keep up with the competition.
The Wolfpack finished with a final score of 194.050, 1.3 points behind West Virginia, who won the match. North Carolina finished second with 194.500, and William and Mary was a distant last at 192.125.
Trailing heading into the final event, State posted its worst score of the night on the floor and slipped to third place. The Wolfpack was outscored by every other team on the floor, keeping it from its second-straight win.
The Mountaineers had three different gymnasts win their events, allowing them to cruise to a win.
“I was disappointed in the finish. Thought we’d do a little bit better on floor than we did,” NC State head coach Mark Stevenson said. “Overall, I thought the kids that competed did a pretty good job in everything except for one event and that was floor.”
The Wolfpack began the night with the lead after posting a strong score on the vault. Freshman Chelsea Knight finished fourth overall in the event, scoring a strong 9.850 and junior Michaela Woodford followed suit with a 9.800. West Virginia’s junior Jaida Lawrence posted the high score of the night in any event with a 9.900 on the vault to steal the show.
NC State held tough in the uneven bars, posting a total team score of 48.625, and freshman Nicole Wild and sophomore Amanda Fillard tied for third with scores of 9.775. West Virginia’s sophomore Alexa Goldberg and UNC-Chapel Hill’s freshman Kaitlynn Hedelund were the only gymnasts to post scores higher than 9.775, with Goldberg winning the event for the third time this year.
The Wolfpack was strong again on the balance beam, as Woodford (9.850) finished second and Wild (9.800) finished third. The Wolfpack trailed the Mountaineers by a slim margin exiting the balance beam competition and gave hope that they could overtake West Virginia in the final event. However, it was not to be.
The Wolfpack gymnasts struggled mightily on the floor, unable to land many of their routines and placing three gymnasts in the bottom half of the ranks. The event showcased how badly the Wolfpack misses its All-American Watkins, who can routinely nail high scores in the event.
“Today we counted falls on the floor, and it was the difference between us finishing third and finishing second,” Stevenson said. “And Brittni [Watkins] was the difference between finishing second and finishing first.”
One bright spot for the Wolfpack was the performance of Woodford. The Gainesville, Florida, native was the only Wolfpack gymnast to participate in the all-around (all four events) and she earned the top overall score (39.175) for the entire meet.
The match was witnessed by a packed house in Reynolds, as Wolfpack Nation was represented well, along with a bevy of Mountaineer fans. The Wolfpack will travel to Pittsburgh for its next match, followed by the anticipated annual Beauty and the Beast event, in which the Wolfpack gymnastics team and the Wolfpack wrestling team will compete in the same building.
