NC State gymnastics defeated UNC-Chapel Hill 195.850-193.700 this past Saturday at Reynolds Coliseum for the second time this season and scored its second-highest team score of the season.
The Wolfpack (6-2, 3-0 EAGL) defeated the Tar Heels (6-3, 3-1 EAGL) back in late January by a slight margin of 0.550. The Pack showed improvement while the Tar Heels struggled to reach its previous scores despite taking the first two places on beam with an impressive score of 49.225. The Wolfpack came in first place for the other three events.
“I’m just so proud of the team,” head coach Kim Landrus said. “We started off and had a slightly rough vault rotation. Definitely not how we wanted to start the meet but we got the team together and really emphasized the importance of controlling everything that we can control and moving on and the next three events.”
The Pack started off slow on the vault. Senior Paris Phillips in particular had a rough landing to earn a low 9.000 for herself. Senior Alexa Phillips carried the Pack through with a new season-high of 9.875 to earn first place on the podium. Junior Drew Grantham tied for fourth with the Pack’s second-highest score on the vault, 9.800. The Pack finished with a team score of 48.475.
“When we’re on an event, that’s the event that we’re on and once it’s over we leave it in the past, whether it be the first event or the last event,” Grantham said. “We don’t really let that specific event affect the other ones.”
The Pack picked itself back up again on the bars, scoring a new team-high score of 49.200. Senior Caitlyn Fillard reached a season-high, while junior Melissa Brooker hit a new career-high. Both sophomore Lauren Kent and freshman Meredith Robinson tied their career-highs, 9.900 and 9.800, respectively.
Fillard placed second on bars after teammate Kent, who placed first. Brooker, senior Maggie Tamburro and Robinson filled in the rest of the top-five slots, effectively shutting the Tar Heels out.
Fillard continued to have a strong night with a season-high on the floor, 9.825, and for her all-around score, 39.225. She tied for fifth place on floor. Fillard also had good performances on the beams, 9.800 and the vault, 9.750.
The Wolfpack finished the beams with a team score of 48.975. Sophomore Kasey Nelson tied her career-high on the beam, 9.850. Nelson was the only member of the Pack to get on the podium for the beams. She tied for third place with two other gymnasts.
The Wolfpack held a strong performance on the floor, scoring 49.200. Sophomore Nicole Webb reached a career-high of 9.850 after scoring 9.800 on the beams. Webb along with Alexa Phillips and a gymnast from UNC tied for second place.
Grantham placed first on the floor event with an impressive career-high of 9.925 to finish out all-around with a score of 38.225. Grantham pushed through a rough routine on the bars and beam to finish strongly on the floor.
“Our team still has so much to achieve and so much to accomplish this season,” Grantham said. “We had three really strong events and then one that was a little weaker but that also started the meet and that didn’t let us determine how the meet was going to end. We went 49.200 on two events which is amazing and the beam was also still really strong.”
The Wolfpack will return to Reynolds Coliseum to host its Tri-Meet against William & Mary and Western Michigan on Friday at 7 p.m.
