Gymnastics: WVU Impressive in Win
February 05, 2006 04:20 PM | General
February 5, 2006
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia gymnastics team won its home four-team meet in impressive fashion on Sunday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum behind a season high team score of 195.1.
West Virginia (5-3) collected three wins over second-place Ohio State (194.5), third-place Iowa (192.25) and fourth-place George Washington (190.975).
The Mountaineers’ phenomenal outing consisted of season high team scores on all four events, nine gymnasts establishing a total of 17 season bests on events, and two all-around season highs.
West Virginia’s event scores included 48.7 on vault, 48.75 on bars, 48.45 on beam and 49.2 on floor.
“We were cleaner and we did a much better job performing on each event,” said WVU head coach Linda Burdette. “We just keep getting better and that’s the important thing.”
WVU’s 195.1 team score is 2.55 points better than its previous season high as the Mountaineers have improved their team score in every meet this year by an average of 2.325 points from the previous meet.
Junior all-arounder Janàe Cox won the all-around with a score of 39.375. Her first-place tallies on vault (9.85), third place on uneven bars (9.875), eighth place on balance beam (9.75), and first place on floor exercise (9.925) were all season highs, the latter her 23rd career score of 9.9 or higher.
Cox also now owns 22 career all-around scores of 39.0 or higher, two shy of tying the school record.
Freshman Erica Watson, who garnered season highs on vault (9.75), bars (9.8) and floor (9.85), established a new personal best in the all-around with a 38.9.
Event winners in addition to Cox include freshman Mehgan Morris swinging a career-high 9.9 on uneven bars, which tied with Ohio State’s Kaylin Schlecht. Morris also took second on the floor with a personal-best 9.85.
Junior Cheryl Goldenfield tumbled a career high on floor with a third-place sum of 9.85, tying Watson. WVU sophomore Jaime Gold tied Cox for highest marks on vault as she equaled a career high with 9.85. Senior Gretchen Richter tied for second on the beam with a 9.825, rounding out a total of nine top-three event performances for WVU.
West Virginia travels to Florida on Feb. 10 for a four-team meet with North Carolina and Arkansas.
