No. 23 WVU Posts Season-High Marks
February 15, 2009 04:59 PM | General
February 15, 2009
| Temple 191.625, #23 West Virginia 195.650 WVU Coliseum Morgantown, W.Va. |
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Meet Results
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| Stat Comparison | ||||||||||||||||
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| Vault | 48.200 | 48.950 | ||||||||||||||
| Bars | 47.275 | 48.775 | ||||||||||||||
| Beam | 47.575 | 48.625 | ||||||||||||||
| Floor | 48.575 | 49.300 | ||||||||||||||
| Top WVU Gymnasts | ||||||||||||||||
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With 195.650 points, the No. 23 West Virginia University gymnastics team earned its second straight season high score, topping Temple, 195.650-191.625, this afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
The point total is the 27th best in program history. The Mountaineers (6-4 overall, 4-1 EAGL) last earned 195.650 points at the 2003 EAGL Championships. Additionally, the score is the squad’s best since it posted 196.050 in its conference championship victory last year.
Sidelined with a shoulder injury at last Monday’s meet at George Washington, senior Mehgan Morris made an impressive comeback today, finishing first in the all-around with a season high 39.350 point total. The mark is the Belle, W.Va., native’s first 39.000-plus score of the season and ninth overall. Morris was only 0.05 points short of her career-best score.
Morris finished first on three of the four apparatuses, scoring 9.850 on the uneven bars, a season-high 9.775 on the beam and a career-best 9.950 on the floor. Additionally, she finished second with 9.775 points, matching a career-high mark from last season’s EAGL Championships.
Morris now has 1,349.175 career points and needs 28.175 points to move on to the WVU career points record list.
Sophomore Amy Bieski matched Morris’ strong performance, scoring 39.025 points for second place in the all-around. The Nanticoke, Pa., native finished second on the vault (9.775) and floor (9.875), and third on bars (9.725).
Katie Canning paced the Owls and finished third in the all-around with 38.750 points.
The Mountaineers dominated on each apparatus today and trumped Temple (9-5) in every event.
WVU jumped out to an early lead following the first rotation, scoring 48.950 on vault to Temple's 47.275 on the bars.
Junior Chelsi Tabor won her fifth vault competition this season, scoring 9.850 points. Prior to Tabor's winning vault, the Mountaineers scored four-straight 9.775s.
The Mountaineers maintained their lead over the Owls through two rotations, 97.725-95.475. WVU scored 48.775 on the bars, while Temple earned 48.200 points on the vault.
Sandwiched between Morris and Bieski’s first and third place bars finishes was sophomore Naja Johnson’s second-place performance. The Austell, Ga., native earned a season high 9.800 points. Over the past two weeks, Johnson has steadily improved her bars mark, scoring 9.700 points in the team’s home quad meet on Jan. 31 and 9.775 points at GW on Feb. 9.
WVU earned its second straight 48.000-plus beam score, posting 48.625 points. Temple earned 48.575 points on the floor, and the Mountaineers continued to lead through three rotations, 146.350-144.050.
Junior Kiersten Spoerke and senior Heather Izer finished second behind Morris on the beam with 9.750 points. Izer’s score is a career-high. Junior Shelly Purkat finished third on the team with 9.700 points.
The Mountaineers concluded the meet with another strong and entertaining floor rotation, scoring 49.300 points. Temple finished the afternoon on the beam and scored 47.575 points.
Morris, Bieski and Johnson took the top three spots on floor, with Johnson’s 9.850 third-place performance matching a career-high mark last achieved on Jan. 31. The Mountaineers counted five 9.800-plus floor routines, as Purkat scored 9.825 and Spoerke scored 9.800 points.
This afternoon’s meet was a designated Pink Meet, and 1,058 fans sat in attendance at the Coliseum, cheering on the Mountaineers and wearing pink to show their support for breast cancer awareness.
The Mountaineers have little time to rest, as they return to the road and travel to No. 8 Oklahoma on Friday, Feb. 20, for a quad-meet with No. 13 Missouri and Brown. Competition is set to begin at 7 p.m. CT.
