D
espite a rough start
in the Big Five meet
Saturday afternoon,
the Michigan women’s
gymnastics team proved its resiliency
with a strong comeback on Senior Day
after a poor first event on floor. The
Wolverines (6-1 overall, 5-1 Big Ten)
placed second in Saturday’s meet with
an all-around score of 195.925.
“It’s senior night and we also had
Abby Brenner go down (in the floor),
which was super unfortunate, so
(Michigan coach Bev Plocki) was like
‘Do it for them, do it for your seniors,
do it for Abby Brenner,’ ” sophomore
Sierra Brooks said. “That’s what kept
me going, I was like. ‘I want this to be
an amazing meet for our seniors,’ I
love them to death, so just go out and
do your best performances and don’t
feel bad for yourself, just go out and do
what we can do.”
Using Plocki’s motivation,
Michigan was able to have strong
performances on the rest of their
events, with season high scores
of 49.525 on the vault and bars.
Sophomore Sierra Brooks led the way,
winning the all-around title, as well as
vault and beam titles. Iowa (8-1) won
the meet with a final score of 196.100,
Penn State (2-8) placed third with
a score of 195.850 and Rutgers (1-8)
finished in fourth with a 195.225.
With three falls on the floor to start
the meet, Michigan’s plan to get off
to a hot start with a typically strong
event fell through quickly.
“We feel like floor is a really really
good event for us, even though that
didn’t show tonight,” Plocki said. “Our
goal was to come out of the gate strong
and start off on a great note, and
obviously our plan got blown up in the
first rotation.”
Junior Abby Brenner was the first
of three Wolverines to fall on the
floor, with a hard landing on her first
pass that caused an ankle injury and
halted her routine.Wojcik followed,
performing an atypical routine, falling
on her second pass and receiving a low
score of 9.050. Wilson also ended the
rotation with a fall on her last pass.
“Normally we start the meets
on vault so it was definitely a little
different starting on floor, we did
practice it in the gym this week
though,” Wojcik said. “But we had a
few uncharacteristic mistakes.”
The Wolverines ended the rotation
on floor with a 47.500, their lowest
event score of the season. Meanwhile,
Rutgers led the second rotation with
a team score of 48.725 on vault, with
the Hawkeyes trailing close behind on
the beam with a team score of 48.525,
highlighted by a 9.950 from Clair Kaji.
After the disappointing start on
floor for Michigan, it recuperated for
the vault and surged for its season-
high score in the third rotation of
the night.. Brooks earned an almost
perfect score of 9.975, and Wojcik and
Wilson recovered from the previous
event with strong performances as
well, scoring a 9.925 and a 9.900,
respectively.
“Typically when I’m relaxed in
the air I can find the landing… and I
was able to find the landing and I was
super excited to finally hit the sweet
spot,” Brooks said.
Michigan delivered another
outstanding rotation on bars for the
fourth rotation of the meet, with
another season high score of 49.525.
Wilson, sophomore Nikoletta Koulos,
Brooks and Wojcik all scored a
9.900 or higher, and all stuck their
dismounts. Senior Annie Maxim also
stepped in for Brenner after her injury,
getting the opportunity to compete on
senior night.
Iowa, meanwhile, ganked on the
lead it had built in the second rotation
as the Wolverines bit at its heels. Iowa
started off shaky with a 49.000 on
floor and two falls on beam that led
to a 48.525, but didn’t give Michigan
a chance to catch up in the end of
the meet with the Hawkeyes’ strong
performance on floor in their last
rotation, closing out with a 49.375.
The Wolverines ended their meet
on beam with a score of 48.375, with
Brooks earning the title for the event
with a 9.950. Senior Lauren Farley also
had a good performance for her senior
night, earning a 9.800. The solid
performance by Michigan pushed
them into second place for the meet,
falling only 0.175 points behind Iowa
despite the falls early on in the meet,
showing their resiliency as the meet
progressed.
SAMI RUUD
For The Daily
Wolverines’ fight to claw back falls just short in Big Five Meet
Allison Engkvist/Daily | Design by Jack Silberman
WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS
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