University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
New Hampshire
Gophers Earn Second in Tri-Meet
2/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
MINNEAPOLIS - The No. 14 University of Minnesota women's gymnastics team hosted an unexpected tri-meet on Saturday evening as they welcome New Hampshire and Iowa to the Sports Pavilion. After Iowa could not make it to their regular scheduled meet in California, the Hawkeyes traveled to Minneapolis to compete in Saturday's competition.
The Golden Gophers tallied a final team score of 194.725 while the Hawkeyes capitalized on the Gophers' mistakes and led through three rotations to seal the Big Ten road victory as they recorded a 195.000. New Hampshire earned a 194.700, just 0.025 behind the Maroon and Gold for third place.
Minnesota earned two team event titles as they put together strong showings on vault and floor exercise with scores of 49.075 and 49.325, respectively. The Gophers, who scored a 47.900 on the bars and 48.425 on the beam, were outdistanced by Iowa on the uneven bars and New Hampshire on balance beam.
Junior Lindsay Mable collected her tenth all-around title of the season as she turned in a 9.900 on vault, uneven bars and the balance beam before scoring a 9.925 on the floor exercise to close the evening. With the three event titles on the night, Mable has now tied her season-high 25 event titles set last season.
The Maroon and Gold began the evening on the vault with a team score of 49.075. Sophomore Rachel Haines (9.875) and Bailey Gardner (9.850) both punched season-high scores to round out the top three on the event.
The second rotation of the evening was not as strong for the Gophers but Mable scored a 9.900 and earned her only second place event finish of the meet behind Iowa's Sydney Hoerr. Senior Cierra Tomson tallied a 9.875, good enough for third place overall.
Mable continued her dominating performance with a 9.900 on the balance beam in the third rotation as junior Madeline Hanley bounced back from a fall in the second rotation to score a 9.850 on the apparatus and collected third place honors on event behind Iowa's Angel Metcalf.
Minnesota's final rotation proved to be the strongest of the evening for the Gophers as Ciara Gardner and Tomson both scored 9.900's to earn spots on the top of the podium with Mable. The 9.900 mark was C. Gardner's highest score of her collegiate career and marked her first event title as a Golden Gopher.
Both Tomson and fellow senior Jenny Covers were honored following the meet for their contributions to the Maroon and Gold over the past four years.
The Gophers will wrap up regular season competition next Friday as they travel to Baton Rouge, La. for a meet with Louisiana State University. The competition is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. CT. Information regarding live stats and streaming will be available early next week. Fans are encouraged to follow @GopherWGym on Twitter or use the hashtag #AlwaysGolden for the latest information from on and off the competition floor.
Players Mentioned
