March 12, 2011
FAIRMONT, W.Va. -
The top-ranked Maryland competitive cheer team took an early lead after the second of six events Saturday in its dual meet at No. 6 Fairmont State and never looked back.
The 6-0 Terps took a seven-point lead at 68.192 to 61.210 after the stunt round and went on to capture the highest total score of any team so far this year at 286.452.
"I feel great about where we are at this point in the season," head coach Jarnell Bonds said. "We are improving each meet and I'm proud of the girls for meeting their goal of beating their personal best score in the team routine."
Fairmont held a narrow lead at 39.41 to Maryland's 39.19 after the first round, compulsories. In the second event, stunts, the Terps scored a 29.0 to the Falcons' 21.80 to take the lead for good.
"Taylor Ammoscato, Ally Martell, Colby Salmon and Jordan Sender opened us up strong with their compulsory stunt, scoring a 9.88," Bonds said.
The Terrapins debuted a new pyramid in this week's meet. The new sequence involved a new catch skill.
"We were happy to see higher scores in the pyramid round, which started off with an incredibly solid catch that Laura Chirico made with Taylor Ammoscato. That really energized the team for the next two pyramids. Ali Iovino finished that round with a perfectly executed pike flip."
Maryland earned its highest pyramid score of the year, 29.330.
The Terps held their lead through the basket toss and tumbling rounds.
"Brooke Grohol performed a strong six-element pass to keep us in the tumbling round after suffering a few boundary violation errors," Bonds said.
They led 179.372 to 168.17 going into the final event, the team routine. The Terrapins executed the routine very strong with a key save by Samantha Ford and Season Daugherty, who were basing Ammoscato in the first pyramid. Ford lost her grip during the skill.
"That could have been detrimental to our routine, but they have the awareness and experience as seniors to recover," Bonds said.
"I was especially pleased with the girls' running tumbling sequence in the team routine. The passes were synchronized and the girls executed very well."
They earned a team routine score of 107.080 Saturday, which was three points higher than their score at Baylor two weeks ago.
Maryland will host No. 2 Oregon next Thursday, March 24 in the Comcast Center Pavilion. Admission is free and it will be the Terps' final meet of the regular season. The Terrapins will celebrate Senior Day prior to the meet.
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