Hi Everyone! My name is Brett Nelligan and I am one of the assistant coaches for the gymnastics team here at Maryland. It has been a great experience to be able to coach gymnastics and work with my father and sister on a daily basis. I was born and raised here in Maryland and I think it's the best place to be in the whole country! Last week we hosted our second intra-squad competition, the annual Red vs. Black meet. The girls did a great job and we all had a lot of fun too! Since the first intra-squad, a few weeks ago had real judges, we invited "celebrity" guest judges to come in and give the scores and entertain the crowd. We had various coaches and support staff from the athletic department scoring each event and they did a great job!

We also showcased a celebrity coach for each team. Dr. Betty Brown from the kinesiology dept. coached the Red Team and Gloria Friedgen, also a professor from the kinesiology dept. coached the Black Team. If Gloria's last name looks familiar to you, then you're right! She is also the wife of our Head Football coach Ralph Friedgen who is busy preparing our boys for the Champs Bowl down in Orlando, FL on Dec. 29th! Both coaches did a great job!

The competition was intense! Both teams started on vault and nailed a combined 7 out of 8 vaults with some great performances turned in by Kelsey Nelligan, Gretchen Kittelberger, Brandi George and Angela Ferg. After the first rotation, the black team was in the lead by only 2 tenths of a point.

Onto bars, where freshman Margaux Meeks stole the show by turning in a nearly flawless performance and a stuck landing on the dismount! Way to go Mo! Margaux has become quite the crowd favorite here in College Park as fans were holding up signs and chanting M! O! M! O! Mo's performance wasn't enough to stop the Red team's surge as they took the lead at the halfway point of the meet.

Our beam team is extremely strong, assistant coach Vicki Chliszczyk has done a great job preparing these talented young newcomers for collegiate competition. Candice King, Morgan Fishbein, and Talia Tossone were the leaders on this event for the Red team. The Black team got a boost by excellent routines from Gretchen Kittelberger, Margaux "Mo" Meeks and Brandi George who stuck her double back dismount to end the event. Once again the lead flip-flopped back to the black team.

It all came down to the final event, the floor exercise. Angela Ferg got the crowd into it right away and pulled down a huge 9.9 for the red team. Ferg's teammates Michele Brenner and Talia Tossone also turned in high marks for the red team. But it was solid performances once again by Kittelberger, Meeks, and George that kept the lead for the black team as they squeaked out a win but only five one-hundredths of a point!

Gloria Friedgen's motivation and enthusiasm for the black team must have been the difference as she came home with the win. I guess coaching runs in the family!

Special thanks to all of our "celebrity" guests and all the fans that came out to support the Lady Terps. Looks like it's gonna be a great year!

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