COLLEGE PARK, Md.— The Maryland gymnastics team (1-2, 1-0 B1G) defeated #11 Minnesota, 194.325-193.350, Thursday evening in the team's Big Ten opener. Senior Karen Tang propelled the Terps, tying the school record, and tallying a personal best with a score of 9.925 on bars.
“Karen [Tang] has done this time after time,” Head coach Brett Nelligan said after the meet, “Whenever we need a strong performance on bars, she's there and you can count on her. She's set a goal to score a 9.900 or above for four years now and she finally got it. It was a great moment for her.”
The GymTerps started the meet strong and continued to gain momentum after every rotation. Junior Kathy Tang had a strong performance with scores of 9.825 on vault, 9.825 on bars, and 9.800 on floor. After a couple falls on beam, senior Stephanie Giameo anchored and hit her beam routine tallying a score of 9.850. Seniors Katy Dodds and Ebony Walters cemented the Terrapins win with back-to-back scores of 9.875. Freshman Evelyn Nee debuted in the lineup, competing on bars.
“We spoke about believing in ourselves and going into tonight with confidence,” Nelligan said, “We did that, and were able to win our first Big Ten home regular season meet. We had a great mindset tonight.”
Minnesota's Lindsay Mable took the all-around title with a score of 38.850. The Co-Big Ten Gymnast of the Week also scored a meet-high 9.900 on floor. The Gopher's Hannah Nordquist tallied a score of 9.875 on beam.
The Terps travel to Happy Valley next Saturday, January 24th, to take on #15 Penn State in the team's first road meet and first-ever Big Ten road meet of the season.
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