Perfect 10s lead to MAC title
Chris McCarty
The senior duo of Michele Orloski and Katie Teft led CMU with perfect 10s. It was the second consecutive 10 in the floor exercise for Orloski, who got the same score in the Chippewas last home victory.
Teft turned in her second 10 on uneven bars, and it was the second 10 in MAC history. It was the first time in CMU history that two gymnasts received perfect scores in the same meet.
“To have two 10s in one meet just blows me away,” said Head Coach Jerry Reighard. “It was so crucial that we scored above 196. We designated this meet as the MAC Championship, and we wanted to know what it took to hit.”
Aside from Orloski’s 10 on the floor exercise, she also tied for first with four other Chippewas on the vault.
Seniors Sarah Dame and Bethany Couturier, and sophomores Kara Reighard and Shanna Duggan all tied Orloski’s vault score of 9.825. Orloski led CMU on the balance beam with a score of 9.825.
Eastern’s Natalie Hashimoto took first on the balance beam.
Even with such a dominating individual performance, Orloski was more worried about the team’s performance.
During her routine, Orloski thought she could score another 10.
“It was like deja vu as soon as I hit my first pass,” she said. “I just had to go with it, and right before my last pass I kept telling myself not to screw up.”
In the floor exercise, Dame, Reighard and Duggan all had scores of 9.90 or better.
“I was upset after beam and I told the beam team that we were going to see what they were made of,” Jerry Reighard said. “I said we needed to score big on floor, and they said they could do it. Our seniors came through big time.”
It was the last home meet for five Chippewas seniors, one of whom was Bethany Couturier. After four surgeries, she returned for her fifth year when many would have given up.
At the midpoint of the season, Couturier injured her leg, and she has been competing in a limited role since with a fractured leg.
“I came back for my fifth year because I wanted to get a 10 on balance beam,” Couturier said. “Now, I am just happy to be competing. The fact my career is almost done hit me after the meet was over.”
Dame went from competing in only one event her freshman year, to leading CMU in the all-around.
Teft was just happy to be able to compete during her senior year. She transferred after UMass dropped its program.
“It has been a great year all-around,” Teft said. “I never thought I would get two 10 in a season, and it’s quite an experience to actually have a last year.”
Although the Chippewas tightened their grips on a regional berth, Reighard said he was not happy with his team’s performance on the balance beam.
“I was very disappointed because our beam workers are better than what they showed,” he said. “If we stay up on beam, there is no one in the conference that can come close to us.
“We have lost the last two MAC Championships because we fell on beam,”Reighard said.
His team is accomplishing many goals it set early in the year.
“I look at it as putting a couple of check marks on the list of things we wanted to do this season,” Reighard said. “There are more people that can score 10s on this team than just Katie and Michele.”
With the win, CMU has a lot of confidence heading into the MAC Tournament at Bowling Green next weekend.
“This is a great confidence builder,” Reighard said. “It was a lesson learned today. We can’t assume anything, we know that we can come back, and we grew up a lot today.”
