March 14, 2010
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
The Maryland competitive cheer team won its fourth National Competitive Stunts and Tumbling Association meet Saturday afternoon over host school Fairmont State. The Terrapins earned an overall team score of 255.92 to the Falcons' 251.53 to claim the win on the road.
The Terps swept all five events, partner stunts, pyramids, basket tosses, tumbling and the team routine, and held off a strong Fairmont team to claim the win.
"We knew this team would be ready for us in our third meeting this year," head coach Jarnell Bonds said. "Fairmont State raised the difficulty level of all of its starting values since the last time we saw them. We really had to fight hard to come home with a win."
Beginning in the partner stunt round, Maryland earned a team score of 38.00 to Fairmont's 37.77. The group of Karissa DePalma, Kaitlyn Letourneau, Season Daugherty and flyer Taylor Ammoscato performed in heat one for the first time this season. That heat was the first one out with a difficulty value of 9.54. The group's execution total was 9.62, making its final score 9.58, as execution counts for 75 percent of the score. Fairmont performed their heat one next and earned a 9.44.
"Taylor has worked really hard the last few weeks and she really looked strong on Saturday," Bonds said. "Taylor's group started us off strong and set the bar high."
Heat 3 of Danielle Jenkin's group of Joanna Venezia, Amanda Soven, Arielle Brown- also won their heat with 9.72, their second highest score of the season. The Terps also won the fourth heat of the event.
Maryland moved on to win both the basket toss and pyramid rounds heading into halftime. The score at the break was Maryland 115.30 to Fairmont's 114. 96.
Rallied by senior co-captain Lauren Louis and sophomore Ally Martell, the Terps had a strong performance in the tumbling event.
"Fairmont matched us for difficulty in the tumbling round so our tumblers had to be right on," Bonds said. "And they were."
Junior Megan Salvatore performed a strong solo Ariel pass earning a 10.4, as her maximum score was an 11. After the tumbling round, the Terrapins were ahead 155.72 to 154.60.
The final event was the team routine, which was where the Terps took the lead for good. For the first time of the year, Maryland competed with just 20 members on the mat in the team routine in preparation for NCA nationals where just 20 members can compete.
Marina Rubbo, Samantha Johnson, Lauren Shannon and Daugherty landed perfect standing fulls in the opening sequence. Jenkins' group also executed a solid stunt during the routine. The Terps earned a score of 100.20 (out of 106) on the team routine while Fairmont earned a 96.63.
The Terps will return home to host an NCSTA meet against teams from Catholic University and Towson on April 2 at 7 p.m. in College Park. The team will not be having its exhibition previously scheduled for April 4.
- Go Terps - 