This Sunday at Reynolds Coliseum, Beauty and the Beast will take center stage. Or, more specifically, the gymnastics and wrestling teams will share the spotlight in a new event created by gymnastics coach Mark Stevenson and wrestling coach Carter Jordan.

The Beauty & the Beast event will be an intrasquad scrimmage for both teams and will also include a talent contest between the teams. It will start at 2 p.m. in Reynolds Coliseum.

“We really thought it’d be a good idea for our team to be out there under the gun, a little more pressure, people in the stands hopefully,” Stevenson said. “So Carter and I talked about it and said, ‘Why don’t we try this and just see if it happens?'”

After talking some with Jordan, Stevenson said he realized there’s a connection between the two sports.

“There’s a lot of wrestlers that used to be gymnasts, so they actually have some skills tumbling and stuff like that,” Stevenson said. “So it should be sort of fun.”

Darrion Caldwell, a sophomore who is the No. 2 wrestler in the country at 149 pounds, and senior gymnast Kelsey Lee have talked some about the event. He said the event is something he is looking forward to.

“She calls me ‘Beast’ now. I call her ‘Beauty.’ So it’s pretty cool. It’s going to bring out a lot of excitement in both of the sports,” Caldwell said. “It should be very entertaining. I’ve already said that, but I would definitely go see it if I wasn’t an athlete, if I wasn’t participating in it.”

Lee said it’s been a good back-and-forth about the event between her and Caldwell.

“Darrion and I are really good friends, but we kind of give each other crap about ‘Bring your ‘A’ game because we’re going to bring ours.’ So it’s fun, all in fun,” Lee said.

But Caldwell indicated he thinks he can gain more attention with his style.

“She thinks she’s more entertaining than me, but I don’t think so. I think she’ll see that if she gets a chance to glance over,” Caldwell said.

Junior Ashley Shepard said the event will be good in helping both teams to support each other more.

“I actually haven’t been to a wrestling match before, so it should be pretty exciting. And I don’t think a lot of the wrestlers have come to our meets either,” Shepard said. “So it should be pretty cool with them both going on.”

While the gymnastics team has yet to start its season, the wrestling team has been in plenty of tournaments recently. Senior Jay Coman said this weekend’s event should help the team get back into training again after some down time this week for studying.

“It’s definitely a change of pace, but I guess it’s much-needed with exam time right now. This week Coach has given us some time off to hit the books,” Coman said. “And that’ll be a good way to step back into the right frame of mind and start working real hard.”