"It's great to see her," Penn State women's gymnastics coach Steve Shephard said. "She's one of my close personal friends. You always want to beat your ex-boss, but there's no animosity."
Another person familiar with Markell and the Florida gymnastics program is Denver head coach Melissa Kutcher. Kutcher competed for the Gators from 1989-1992. Although Kutcher had a different coach than Markell, Kutcher stayed on a fifth year to finish up her degree and acted as a student coach for Markell.
"We have a really good relationship," Kutcher said. "She was at my wedding."
This will be the first time the two teams have competed in a regular season meet since Kutcher has been head coach at Denver. She is currently in her third season as head coach.
Denver brings with it a very young team. The team consists of eight freshmen and sophomores and only four upperclassmen, one of which is senior Jennifer Ebdon who tore her anterior cruciate ligament earlier this season and is not competing right now.
"It's been a learning experience," Kutcher said. "I'm looking to peak later in the year. Right now I just want to gain confidence and experience for the post season."
But the connections don't end there. Not only did Markell coach Kutcher, but she also coached Penn State assistant coach Jessica Bastardi.
There are even some connections between some of the competing gymnasts. Senior Gemma Cuff has a friend on the Florida team, Gabby Fuchs, whom she knows from competing with in England.
Before Penn State can think about either Florida or No. 24 Denver however, it is concentrating on the meet at hand against unranked Maryland.
Maryland's highest score this season was a 194.100 against UNC, Towson, and NC State Feb. 3. The Terps have also faced such competition as Rhode Island whom they lost to with a score of 191.525-188.875. Penn State also faced Rhode Island earlier this year, which it beat by a score of 196.775-193.150.
Penn State faced Florida at the Super Six Challenge in Tuscaloosa, Ala., to open its season where Florida finished fifth with a 194.425, directly in front of Penn State, which scored a 193.275.
"We weren't prepared," Shephard said. "We weren't really ready. We hadn't trained effectively and we didn't have a gym."
The Nittany Lions will look to continue raking in the top scores, like they have done the last two weeks. They scored a 196.775 against Rhode Island and then a 197.450 against Massachusetts, setting a new school record.
Penn State also set new school records on both bars and floor against Massachusetts with scores of 49.500 and 49.725, respectively.
And they've been doing this kind of thing all season. Penn State set a school record on beam with a 49.650.
Individually, Penn State gymnasts are also breaking records and achieving their goals. In addition to Katie Rowland setting a new all-around record of 39.650 and tying the school record on bars with a 9.950, co-captain Maria Taylor has also done her share of the work, being one of the two other gymnasts who share the honor with Rowland on bars.
Other Nittany Lions continuing to stay consistent for the team include senior Gemma Cuff and sophomore Katie McAvoy. Last week against Massachusetts, Cuff topped her personal-best on floor scoring a 9.975 and also scored a 9.925 on vault. McAvoy is continuing to work on her 10.0 vault, which she exhibitioned Saturday, to work it into the regular lineup.
And with a few tough teams in Penn State's future, the Lions are going to have to continue perfecting what they've already begun.
"I think it's a great opportunity," Rowland said. "I think we need to focus on the meets we did extremely well, and we need to go into it (the upcoming meets) with that mind frame — kind of go in there cocky and with attitude. With the situations we've been expected to win, we go out there and do the job. We showed we can score a 197."
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