The No. 15 Michigan women’s gymnastics team showed tenacity Saturday evening at the Big Ten quad meet, fighting to achieve a season-defining team score. Although the team delivered a strong performance and showcased a multitude of individual improvements, it left the meet in disappointment, as it was unable to contribute to its National Qualifying Score.
The Wolverines (10-4 overall, 6-3 Big Ten) fell narrowly to No. 13 Minnesota (10-1, 8-1) with a competitive 196.300 overall team score. The Gophers took the win scoring 196.625 points. Maryland (8-7, 4-5) finished the meet in third place with 196.125, while Illinois (7-11, 3-6) took fourth, scoring 195.275. Although its scores were less than desirable, Michigan brought well defined routines and demonstrated newfound strengths in its team dynamic.
“There were a lot of things that were very frustrating about tonight,” Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. “It’s one thing if your team goes out there and really implodes and they do it to themselves. But when the team goes and does a really solid job and you know there are other factors that are out of our control, that’s so frustrating.”
The Wolverines opened the meet on the bars, where graduate Carly Bauman had the highest score for Michigan with 9.875 points. She has proven to be a consistent competitor this season and gave hope to the Wolverines given the rocky circumstances. Most notably, Bauman scored a 9.925 with her floor routine, taking the event title for the meet.
“Carly has just been such a rock, and you wouldn’t know it by looking at the score, but she did a really phenomenal beam and bar routine as well,” Plocki said. “She just has been so consistent all season long, so it was nice to see her be able to win floor.”
Even with such solid routines from Bauman and polished performances throughout, Michigan had difficulty gaining the quantitative recognition it deserved. But, this struggle affected all four teams. The Gophers narrowly held the lead throughout the competition, while the Terrapins sat a little too comfortably in second place for the first three rotations. The Wolverines remained in third place for the majority of the meet, before pushing past every last barrier to conclude the meet where they did.
In the final rotation of the evening, Michigan prepped its vault routines, ready to launch a debut vault competitor. Sophomore Kayli Boozer scored 9.850 points on her very first collegiate vault run and brought the Wolverines back to life for their final pass of the night. Earlier in the meet, Boozer competed on the beam and accomplished a 9.825, the leading score for Michigan. While she may be more familiar with competing the beam event, the power she added to the Wolverines’ vault lineup was unmatched.
“It was such a bright light at the end of the meet to see Kayli Boozer go out there and finally compete this vault that we’ve been seeing in practice,” Plocki said. “But I hope that we are over a major hurdle now and we’ll be able to see that (routine) consistently through the rest of the season.”
Despite Michigan not taking home the team score it had hoped for, the Wolverines compiled some of their best routines to make the most of the situation and further establish competitive lineups, to build a foundation for the rest of the season.
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