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
Flipped Out

