Gymnastics finishes third in tri-meet against Ohio State and NC State
Freshman all-around Kennedy Rae Johnson performs her floor routine on Feb. 2 at McGuirk Arena.
Central Michigan gymnastics trailed all night against No. 23 Ohio State and No. 24 North Carolina State in a tri-meet on March 11.
CMU finished third with a score of 195.175, just shy of its season average.
NCSU ended with the high score 196.800, their fourth-highest score in school history. OSU followed at 196.525 on senior night.
CMU dropped its fourth straight match of the season. The Chippewas sit at 6-5 (4-1 in Mid-American Conference).
Since Feb. 18, when the Chippewas beat MAC competitor Kent State 196.150-196.125, they haven’t been able to reach the 196-point mark.
“It’s not what I see in the gym from them,” head coach Jerry Reighard said. “The younger gymnasts are stepping up and giving their bests in competition, but we struggle when we’ve been in competition lately. Because of injuries to Macey and now Abby Zoeller, we’re trying to take our seventh and eighth best person on the team and replace some of our best.”
Senior Miranda Wieczorek recorded her career high on beam in the first rotation with a 9.9.
Yet the Chippewas were still trailing both the Wolfpack and the Buckeyes by more than six tenths of a point, 97.150-97.775-98.275 to end the second rotation.
The third rotation at vault brought career highs for both Bryttany Kaplan, 9.85, and Kennedy Rae Johnson, 9.825.
“It was a performance from them we see every day in practice,” Reighard said. “They are capable of earning those scores and we got to see that happen today.”
However, CMU stayed in last, 146.025, and trailing second-place OSU by more than a full point going into the final rotation of the night.
Senior Katy Clements had a 9.225 on beam — her lowest of the season and second-lowest score of her career. Sophomore Denelle Pedrick scored an 8.9 on vault — her lowest of this season and her career.
“We had some very important routines that were uncharacteristic of our better athletes and that’s not what you want to see from a coaching standpoint this late in the season,” he said. “As it turned out, those routines were pretty critical for us.”
CMU will host senior night against Ball State at 7 p.m. March 15 at McGuirk Arena. CMU is 57-14 all time against the Cardinals.
