No. 21 Maryland gymnastics scores season-best 197.100 for first place result at Maryland Five

No. 21 Maryland gymnastics (17-8) came into Sunday’s meet looking for a strong finish to its 2023 regular season campaign.

A strong finish is exactly what the Terps delivered, scoring a season-best 197.100 to come out on top over Towson (196.575), Temple (196.250), George Washington (195.450) and Yale (192.750). It is the first time all season where they recorded a score of at least 197.

“It feels great,” coach Brett Nelligan said. “We’ve been so close a few times this year and just couldn’t get over that 197 mark, and for them to put it all together in the last regular season meet, it feels really special…I’m just proud of them, they had to work really hard to get to this place.”

The Terps started the meet with their bye rotation while their opponents kicked the competition off. Starting at a point disadvantage in the second rotation, the squad needed a strong showing in their first event, vault. They came out from the early break and delivered just that, notching a 49.150 collective score, with five out of six competing gymnasts scoring a 9.825 or higher. Junior Olivia Weir led the way with a 9.850, while seniors Reese McClure and Emma Silberman, sophomore Josephine Kogler and freshman Taylor Rech all notched a 9.825. 

“It’s not ideal to start on a bye because you get your energy up from the march out and then you gotta go sit,” Nelligan said. “But I will say, next week at Big Tens we start on a bye, so this was actually perfect practice for us…we wanted to get ourselves in that mentality.”

In their second event, the Terps competed on bars. In recent weeks, the Terps have had struggles on their bars rotation, which was arguably their best rotation in the first month of the season. But on Friday, the Terps came out and recorded an impressive score of 49.075. On Sunday, they did even better, recording a 49.275, with five out of six gymnasts scoring a 9.825 or better, including a 9.925 from sophomore Sierra Kondo. She was followed up by senior Aleka Tsiknias (9.875), Silberman (9.825) and sophomores Rhea LeBlanc and Tasha Brozowski (9.825). The collective score was their third best bars result of the season. 

In the Terps’ third event, they took on beam. The end result was the second-best collective beam score of the season, a 49.200, coming behind only their score from last week’s Terp Quad, a 49.300. Five out of six competing gymnasts recorded a 9.800 or higher, with the young talent leading the way. Kogler led the way with a 9.900 while freshman Maddie Komoroski followed her up with a 9.875. Silberman scored a 9.825, while McClure and junior Elizabeth Debarberie finished with a 9.800 apiece. 

Entering the final rotation, floor, the Terps found themselves in second place behind Towson. The Tigers finished with their bye rotation, leading the Terps by 48.900. But the Terps recorded a phenomenal 49.425, passing the Tigers to take first place in the meet. All six competing gymnasts recorded a 9.875 or better. McClure led the way with her incredible 9.925, followed up by Silberman and junior Tayler Osterhout with a 9.900 apiece. 

It was an excellent ending to the regular season for the Terps, and definitely an emotional one with it being the final meet in Xfinity for the seniors.

“Emotions were high, but I think we did a good job of using our emotions as fuel and letting them back our routines,” Silberman said. “We trusted in each person…we took all 22 people and put them into one routine, and we’re all backing each other, one by one.”

Nelligan and the team have talked in recent weeks about starting hot and staying hot across all four events. Today, they did so, with four phenomenal rotations.

“Staying in believing in ourselves was the key,” Nelligan said. “We trained so hard, we know at some point, it’s all going to come together if we keep believing it…we’re peaking at the right time. The goal was to be four-event ready for the postseason, and I think not only have we accomplished that, but we’ve set ourselves up for success.”

The Terps now have the Big Ten championship and the NCAA tournament looming. The squad will hit the road to compete in the Big Ten championship next Saturday in Iowa City.

“We talk a lot about the standards and I think today we hit the standard on all four events, I think it was a great performance overall,” McClure said. “We’re gonna get back into the gym and continue to work hard, this won’t change anything. It’ll just give us more confidence going into next meet.”