When the Penn State women’s gymnasts begin their floor exercise, a vast array of songs can be heard echoing throughout Rec Hall.
The songs can differ from Big & Rich’s “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)” to Awolnation’s “Sail.” These songs and beats offer something different to each gymnast on the team.
Each member of the team picks her own songs, head coach Jeff Thompson said.
Freshman Kassidy Stauder dances to the popular country song, while junior Sidney Sanabria-Robles tumbles to more tango music but leads with “Sail.”
Meanwhile, sophomore Lexi Carroll chooses to dance to more of a techno beat.
“It’s more of the way I like to dance,” Carroll said. “I like to do more poses rather than dance-like music.”
Carroll also said that the music each gymnast uses depends on each person’s personality.
However, not all gymnasts base their selections from their favorite type of music. Some use their music to energize the judges and crowd.
“My music’s kind of pop music…its fun and upbeat to get the crowd going,” junior Lindsay Musgrove said.
Musgrove uses beats from a Lady Gaga song because “it fits well” with the way that she dances.
Senior Sharaya Musser uses songs from Chris Brown and Justin Bieber, which was put together by her club team in Colorado during the summer.
“We want something that’s upbeat that the crowd can get into because if it’s boring the judges are just going to be bored,” Musser said. “We want them to have something they want to enjoy.”
The process to create each gymnast’s particular set of tunes includes work from Thompson.
“I have several hundred floor musics I’ve created over time,” Thompson said. “At the beginning of the year they have three CDs and pick clips of their favorite tunes.”
Thompson then has to move the portions of the songs around to make them fit.
The floor music seems to be entertaining the crowd and judges as the team earned its highest score of the season at the meet last Saturday with a 49.025, after struggling in that exercise in the first three meets.
