While the snow blanketed the interstates and the hills of Morgantown, W. Va., the No. 19 Penn State women's gymnastics team took over the West Virginia Coliseum by storm.
The Nittany Lions (7-5) tied their season high score of a 195.450 in a tri-meet victory over West Virginia (194.900) and Rutgers (192.400) yesterday afternoon.
Once again, senior Katie Rowland paced the Lions by winning the all-around with a 39.675. West Virginia's TeShawne Jackson finished second with a 39.500, while fellow Nittany Lion Katie McAvoy, who hit 4-for-4 on every event for the first time this season, finished third respectively with a 39.475.
"I am really happy that I hit 4-for-4," McAvoy said. "It has been my goal since the beginning of the season and I usually fall on something, so this time I was pretty happy."
The Lions began the meet at a slow pace, like the snowstorm outside the Coliseum. With the team having trouble, McAvoy and Rowland put together routines that tied them for second place in the event with a 9.825.
After a relatively poor outing on the bars, the Lions moved to the balance beam. Kelly Streicher, who re-aggravated her wrist on her previous routine on the bars, was slated to start. With her wrist injury and Leslie Bair hurting her heel in warm-ups on the beam, freshman Erin Clayton got her first nod to compete as a Penn State gymnast.
However, the result was not what she intended it to be. Clayton, Meredith Hoover, and Kate Stopper all ended up falling on beam.
"I felt that I could have done a better job, and the little things that I messed up I can definitely fix in the gym," Clayton said.
With the team digging itself a hole into the snow drifts, Nikki Bongiovanni turned the momentum around as she posted a 9.850 on beam followed by McAvoy and Rowland each scoring an impressive 9.900 that tied them for the win in the event.
"We started off a little bit slow on bars and beam, Rowland said. "We weren't as aggressive as we wanted to go, but we turned it around right after beam."
With the momentum slowly turning and the snow falling heavily outside, the Lions moved to the floor exercise that gave them trouble last week. However, this week would prove to be a fruitful showing. Rowland won the event by putting together an impressive routine, good enough to earn a 9.950.
"Floor was awesome," Rowland said. "One judge gave me a 10, but the other one didn't."
Sophomore Kate Stopper placed second in the event with an impressive 9.925, while Leslie Bair returned to competing in the floor exercise for the first time this season and scored a 9.750.
With Penn State losing to West Virginia by five-hundredths of a point (146.100 to 146.050) going into the final event, the Lions needed to hit every landing on vault and they did.
Rowland raced down the runway and propelled herself into the air and fluttered down like a soft falling snowflake to stick the landing and earn the first perfect 10.0 of her career.
"It was awesome, [my teammates] were chanting 10, 10, and then we all did a big team hug," Rowland said. "I said at the beginning of the year that I am not graduating until I get a 10.0 on vault, so I reached my goal and I can graduate now."
Besides Rowland hitting, the entire team hit on vault and scored the team record of a 49.500 in the event that secured the victory for the Lions.
Although the win comes at a good time, the Lions will have to celebrate their victory in enemy territory because they are stranded in Morgantown for the night.
"The interstate is closed so we are staying here the night," Penn State women's gymnastics coach Steve Shephard said. "Hopefully we can leave tomorrow, but I don't know, it depends on the roads opening up."
