College Park, Md. - The University of Maryland women's gymnastics team dropped 196.000-195.350 to the Iowa Hawkeyes in a nationally televised home meet Thursday.
"Overall, the girls were sticking landings, hitting routines and it was exciting and fun," said head coach Brett Nelligan. "I thought vaults were great, we could be a little cleaner on landings. I thought bars were great, we could hit a few more handstands. For beam, elimiante a little wobble here and there and floor, a little more explossive on our passes and cleaner landings and we'll be there."
Through four meets, the underclassmen have shown impressive consistency as 92 percent of the team's lineups are comprised of freshmen and sophomores.
"Every week, the pressure goes up and they seem to get tougher and tougher. For them to come out and push a team like Iowa right to the edge, I just can't say enough about what they're doing for us." Nelligan said.
Audrey Barber continued to display a strong performance, placing second in the all-around with a score of 39.200.
The GymTerps kicked off the night on vault where sophomore Morgan Bixler posted an event-high with a 9.775 to give the team an overall score of 48.675 on the aparatus. The team did not count a score less than 9.70 on the event.
On bars, the Terps scored a 48.950 on the event, led by freshman Emilie LeBlanc's career-high score of 9.775. Sophomore Kirsten Peterman also posted an impressive career-high score of 9.850, followed by freshman Karrie Thomas' personal-best of 9.800 on the event.
The team then moved to beam, where they tallied a 48.725 with Barber anchoring the event with an impressive 9.825.
The GymTerps finished the night on floor, their strongest event of the evening, with a solid 49.000. Thomas posted a 9.825, sophmore Alecia Farina followed with a 9.850 and Barber anchored with a 9.875.
The Terps returns to action Sunday, Feb. 4 in a face-off against Michigan. The team will travel to Ann Arbor, Mich., and the meet will be aired on BTN2Go.
-Maryland-
