|
TWU
Home > Student
Life > Athletics > Gymnastics > 4/18/08
PIONEERS COME FROM BEHIND TO WIN 2008 USAG NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Meet Results
 SHREVEPORT, Louisiana (April 18) – It’s not how you start, but how you finish. That appropriately describes the scintillating effort of the Texas Woman’s University Pioneers on Friday night as they used a dramatic rally in the final two rotations of the meet to score a season-high 194.700 and win the 2008 USA Gymnastics Women’s Collegiate National Championship at The Gold Dome in Shreveport, Louisiana.
TWU went to their third event of night, balance beam, buried in third place, eight tenths of a point (97.575-96.775) behind the meet leaders (and host team), Centenary College.
The Pioneer beam workers started the TWU rally with four scores of 9.700 or better. Freshman Lauren Sizemore garnered a TWU team-best (and career-high) score of 9.875 on the apparatus. Two juniors - Tonya Pipkorn and Amy Hulbert – were nearly as good as Sizemore, scoring a 9.825 and a 9.725 respectively. The TWU anchor on the event, senior Courtney Arno-Templet, hit with a 9.700 to give the Pioneers a team beam score of 48.800 (their second-highest of the year) and push them all the way up into first place.
As good as the Pioneers were on beam, they were even better on their final event of the competition, floor exercise. The TWU floor team hit all six of their routines to post a team floor score of 49.125 (a new school record). Two TWU gymnasts, freshman Mollie Blessing (9.800) and senior Nicole Poling (9.825) - tied their career-highs. Hulbert delivered the best floor score of her career, a 9.800. Junior Amie Boles, TWU’s floor anchor, capped off the Pioneers’ comeback and sealed the national title with an electric 9.875 routine.
The uphill climb for TWU was necessitated by a poor performance on vault, their first event of the meet. Two Pioneer gymnasts fell on their vault landings, putting TWU in fourth place after the first rotation.
The Pioneers recovered slightly on bars, due in large part to the work of freshman Amanda Walker and Arno-Templet. Walker tied her career-high with a 9.800 bar routine. Arno-Templet, competing in a team competition for the last time in her illustrious TWU career, also equaled her career-best with a 9.925.
TWU head coach Frank Kudlac described his team’s winning performance as resilient.
“Unfortunately, we dug a hole for ourselves to start the meet,” he said. “But we never quit, and we never gave up. Beam gave us a huge lift, and then we climbed all the way out of the hole on floor exercise.”
The national title is the ninth for the Pioneers, the most of any school in the history of USAG collegiate competition.
“This was a total team effort,” explained Kudlac. “Every girl wearing a TWU leotard tonight contributed to this national championship. Battling back from behind like we did makes this victory so incredibly sweet.”
NOTE: The three-day USAG national championship competition will conclude at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon with the individual event finals. The following TWU gymnasts will compete for individual titles: Mollie Blessing (vault, floor), Brittany Parker (vault), Nicole Poling (vault), Amanda Walker (bars), Courtney Arno-Templet (bars, beam), Tonya Pipkorn (beam, floor), and Amie Boles (beam). Arno-Templet will be looking to repeat as the national champion on bars. She also won the 2006 USAG title on beam.
Final Team Scores:
TWU: 194.700
Cornell: 193.675
Towson University : 193.100
Centenary College : 192.925
TWU Team Event Scores (listed in order of competition):
Vault: 48.075
Bars: 48.700
Beam: 48.800
Floor: 49.125 (season-high and school record)
TWU Individual Gymnast Scores (listed in order of competition):
Vault: Amy Hulbert, 9.650; Amie Boles, 9.050; Jennifer Liberato, 9.725; Mollie Blessing, 9.800 (tied career-high); Brittany Parker, 9.125; Nicole Poling, 9.775.
Bars: Jennifer Kingsbury, 9.575; Kristie Costa, 9.475; Brista Michael, 9.750; Jennifer Liberato, 9.650; Amanda Walker (tied career-high), 9.800; Courtney Arno-Templet, 9.925 (tied career-high).
Beam: Amy Hulbert, 9.725; Brittany Parker, 9.675; Tonya Pipkorn, 9.825; Lauren Sizemore, 9.875 (career-high); Kristie Costa, 9.350; Courtney Arno-Templet, 9.700.
Floor: Amy Hulbert, 9.800 (career-high); Jennifer Liberato, 9.775; Mollie Blessing, 9.800 (tied career-high); Nicole Poling, 9.825 (tied career-high); Tonya Pipkorn, 9.825; Amie Boles, 9.875.
|
