Sunday, January 13
Washington, D.C
1 p.m.
Ball State University
193.200
at
193.525
George Washington
Photo by: Michael Hickey
Standout Performances Highlight Season Opener At GW
January 13, 2019 | Gymnastics
WASHINGTON, DC - Heading into its first event of the 2019 season, a young Ball State gymnastics team put in an 18-hour work day before even hitting the competition floor.Â
Snowy conditions turned the team's travel into a marathon, but the Cardinals overcame that adversity and led the quad meet team scoring until the final moments at George Washington Sunday afternoon.
"We did a good job staying together," head coach Joanna Saleem said after the meet. "We handled ourselves really well."
OFFICIAL MEET RESULTS
Once the Cardinals got down to business, business was good. Ball State placed third of four at the end of the day but led for most of the afternoon and was the top scoring team in both the bars (48.700) and vault (48.400). Senior Jordyn Penny had a standout performance on the bars, winning the event with a 9.850. Sandra Elsadek, in her collegiate debut, supported that score with a 9.750.
Saleem also cited Elsadek's floor routine as "pretty awesome." The freshman tied for sixth in the event with a 9.825 mark.
On vault, Maddie MacDonald stood out with a 9.775 mark. Kaitlyn Menzione was BSU's leader on the beam (9.750) and was second in the all-around.
North Carolina, which trailed the Cardinals in the team scoring for much of the day, ended up first. UNC had top performers in the vault and on floor. Host school George Washington edged the Cards on the strength of a strong beam performance.
Saleem was encouraged by the strong results considering Ball State was performing 10 new routines in the season's first meet.Â
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"We have a lot of young gymnasts – between freshmen and upperclassmen competing in new events – doing new routines. Almost half of our 24 routines are new. But we showed that we can hang with any team out there. We are in a great place to start building from here."
At the end of the day, the Cardinals were thrilled to end preseason practice and compete.
"You can only simulate competition in practice so much," Saleem said. "It was important for us to get out onto the competition floor. We have some minor things to tweak, and next week we will go down to North Carolina and keep improving and put on a good show."
Snowy conditions turned the team's travel into a marathon, but the Cardinals overcame that adversity and led the quad meet team scoring until the final moments at George Washington Sunday afternoon.
"We did a good job staying together," head coach Joanna Saleem said after the meet. "We handled ourselves really well."
OFFICIAL MEET RESULTS
Once the Cardinals got down to business, business was good. Ball State placed third of four at the end of the day but led for most of the afternoon and was the top scoring team in both the bars (48.700) and vault (48.400). Senior Jordyn Penny had a standout performance on the bars, winning the event with a 9.850. Sandra Elsadek, in her collegiate debut, supported that score with a 9.750.
Saleem also cited Elsadek's floor routine as "pretty awesome." The freshman tied for sixth in the event with a 9.825 mark.
On vault, Maddie MacDonald stood out with a 9.775 mark. Kaitlyn Menzione was BSU's leader on the beam (9.750) and was second in the all-around.
North Carolina, which trailed the Cardinals in the team scoring for much of the day, ended up first. UNC had top performers in the vault and on floor. Host school George Washington edged the Cards on the strength of a strong beam performance.
Saleem was encouraged by the strong results considering Ball State was performing 10 new routines in the season's first meet.Â
Â
"We have a lot of young gymnasts – between freshmen and upperclassmen competing in new events – doing new routines. Almost half of our 24 routines are new. But we showed that we can hang with any team out there. We are in a great place to start building from here."
At the end of the day, the Cardinals were thrilled to end preseason practice and compete.
"You can only simulate competition in practice so much," Saleem said. "It was important for us to get out onto the competition floor. We have some minor things to tweak, and next week we will go down to North Carolina and keep improving and put on a good show."
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