After earning the EAGL regular-season title, NC State gymnastics made the trip to Pittsburgh to compete in the EAGL Championships. While the Wolfpack did well enough to top the first session of the meet against North Carolina and George Washington, Temple outscored the Wolfpack in the second session, giving the Owls the conference championship and NC State second place.
Despite starting off the first half of the meet with some hard events, NC State came out the other side with two 49-point rotations. First up was the beam, where sophomore Emily Shepard’s continued improvement was on display. Shepard’s 9.850 wasn’t the only one of the team, however, as sophomore Chloe Negrete and senior Nicole Webb joined her in attaining that score. The three 9.850s were good enough to give the Wolfpack a 49.125 in the event, pushing it ahead of George Washington and North Carolina in the first rotation of session one.
Next up for the Wolfpack was the floor exercise, an event the Pack has grown accustomed to finishing meets with. Nevertheless, NC State got the ball rolling with some high scores to maintain its lead. Freshman Madison Benson and senior Kasey Nelson earned identical 9.825 scores to keep NC State in contention for a high floor score after an early slipup, and Negrete rounded things out with a 9.850. Despite starting out with the two hardest events, NC State found itself in the lead halfway through session one.
No NC State gymnast stood out from the rest in the Wolfpack’s third event of the afternoon, but they banded together to nearly give the Pack another 49-point rotation on the vault. Shepard paced all Wolfpack gymnasts with a 9.850 which Negrete and Benson followed close behind with 9.800s. Despite lacking some of the gaudy scores the Wolfpack has usually earned in the event, NC State’s 48.975 was higher than what either North Carolina or George Washington earned on the vault.
The Wolfpack finished up on the bars, where it was carried by its upperclassmen. Junior Meredith Robinson’s 9.850 was sandwiched between 9.800s coming from seniors Lauren Kent and Katie Cox. Once again, the Wolfpack came close to earning a 49-point rotation, getting 48.950 points in the event. With that, NC State finished with 196.050 points across all four rotations, earning first place in the first session of the EAGL Championships.
But it was not meant to be for the Wolfpack. When the second session started, Temple not only dominated Towson, Pitt and Long Island, but made a run for the top spot occupied by NC State. Temple’s 49.375 on the floor made the difference in the meet, giving it 196.500 points and leaving NC State to settle for second place.
NC State will wait to see if it did enough to qualify for the NCAA Regionals, held from Thursday, April 1 through Sunday, April 4. The NCAA Selection Show will be on Monday, March 22 at 5 p.m.
